Invariant innit, isn ´t it

[Salikoko S. Mufwene]

Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:
> my guess is that this is a separate development from the U.K. tag.,
> quite possibly from dutch influence.
>
> the pennsylvania dutch (= german) english of my childhood used
> "ain't?" (or its more emphatic variant "ai not?", i.e., [e nat]) for
> these fixed-tag questions: You're goin' nah, ain't?/ai not?  probably
> a truncation of  something like "ain't that so?"  i don't know the
> history in pa. dutch itself, but the pa. dutch english tag is just a
> straight-out borrowing from pa. dutch (which is surely a calque on a
> german dialect tag).
>
> the michigan/ohio cites, if from dutch, would probably also have been
> calques.
>
> meanwhile, the U.K. tags are surely descended from a fixed tag "isn't
> it?", presumably a reduction of something like "isn't it so?"
>
    The full form in Gullah may be informative in this case: "ain' it?"
in variance with "enni?" and "inni?".  "Ain't it"  may be a more
probable source than "isn't it".

Sali.

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