ain't = didn't

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:57 PM -0400 7/6/05, Wilson Gray wrote:
>On Jul 5, 2005, at 5:28 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
>>Subject:      ain't = didn't
>>-----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>--------
>>
>>I first encountered this about five years ago.  I think O.J. Simpson
>>was being quoted in the _New Yorker_.
>>
>>More recently,
>>
>>2003 Russell Simmons _Def Poetry Jam on Broadway and More_ (N.Y.:
>>Atria Books) 133
>>Lemon ain't grow up easy.  The half Puerto Rican kid from Sunset Park,
>>Brooklyn, grew up an outlaw and describes his parents as outlaws too.
>>
>>JL
>
>I've found "ain't" in place of "didn't" to be annoyingly common - so
>common, in fact, that "didn't" has become the rarity - in contemporary
>BE, at least in the street variety. There are probably other old heads
>besides me who don't use "ain't" instead of "didn't."
>
>More annoyingly still, though, I don't find that using "ain't" in place
>of "didn't" interferes in any way with comprehension. So, there's a
>good chance that this replacement of "didn't" may become a permanent
>feature. But, one never knows, do one?
>
>-Wilson Gray

I seem to recall this use of "ain't" as a negative preterite marker
is cited in various places as a hallmark of AAVE, as opposed to other
varieties in which "ain't" occurs in other functions.  This has been
around for a while, from what I've read.

Larry