The contraction for “is not” is “isn’t”. The contraction for “are not” is “aren’t”. But what’s the contraction for “am not”? I got curious about that, and looked up “amn’t” in my unabridged dictionary. Turns out that the word actually exists as a contraction for “am not”, but the M is silent and it’s pronounced ant. Over time, the A got lenghtened and it became “ain’t” (ever wonder why the apostrophe is there?). “Ain’t” is a contraction for “am not”, so it’s incorrect the way it’s used in the strip, but it should be considered correct if used instead of “am not”.
The contraction for “is not” is “isn’t”. The contraction for “are not” is “aren’t”. But what’s the contraction for “am not”? I got curious about that, and looked up “amn’t” in my unabridged dictionary. Turns out that the word actually exists as a contraction for “am not”, but the M is silent and it’s pronounced ant. Over time, the A got lenghtened and it became “ain’t” (ever wonder why the apostrophe is there?). “Ain’t” is a contraction for “am not”, so it’s incorrect the way it’s used in the strip, but it should be considered correct if used instead of “am not”.