This is my pet peeve-people who try and cramp language with all these “should’s” and “shouldn’t’s”(Ha!). Ain’t does have a purpose-it’s a contraction of “am not”. As in “I am not” would be changed to “I ain’t.”
Contractions have nothing to do with stupidity. However, prescriptive grammar has been known to limit people’s intelligence.
For what it’s worth, Esperanto permits two contractions. Both the article “la” and singular nominative nouns (“kato” etc.) can drop the final vowel. This is usually poetic, e.g. to make a sentence sound more metrical. So: “por plibonigi la lingvon de la homaro” can be made iambic by contracting it to “por plibonigi l’lingvon de l’homar’”.
freakmouse, you’re so right. We write the English language, the English language doesn’t write us or … uh … something.
Flochi:
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The correct plural of “you” is “you”.
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Hey, watch it now. It was statements like that that made the South want to secede in the mid-1800’s! 
Incidentally, it bugs me when people type/write “should of” instead of “should’ve.”
NOTE FOR THE OVER-SENSITIVE: The indicates that I was kidding, not trolling.
Well, this is really obscure, but contractions are NEVER used in the Latvian language. To make up for it, most lazy speakers ignore correct endings of most words.
Example: “Negribu iet majas” (I do not want to go home) becomes, “Negrib iet maja”. This sounds much, much worse than contractions.
Hmmmm. It seems I’ve touched a nerve. It wasn’t my intention.
“Cannot” is a contraction? Well, I’ll be dipped in shi**. I guess you do learn something every day.
So Loverock is what, a fucking genius?
Incorrect: “I am going to go to the store.”
Correct: “I’m a-fixin’ to go to th’ store.”
Incorrect: “We’ll not be able to gather firewood where it can’t be found.”
Correct: “I reckon we ain’t gonna make no far 'cause we cain’t find no farwood.”
Incorrect: “So Loverock is what, a fucking genius?”
Correct: “They’s no call fer cussin’, sly.”
Hey Strainger, shouldn’t that have been “I gotta set y’all straight” ??
The worst ones for me are the ones with phonetically offensive spelling. I remember a western 7-11 / JiffyMart kind of store called “Stufy’s”. Judging from the radio commercials, it was intended that we should pronounce this as “stuffy’s” (to rhyme with "Duffy’s), not “stoofies” (to rhyme with “Doofy’s”), but whenever I saw their sign my eye would tell my brain “Stoofies”. And there is, or was, a rap singer who designates/designated himself as “Flava Flav”. Rhymes with “favor have” (sounds stupid)? or with “favor save” (in which case the spelling sucks)?
Designated Optional Signature at Bottom of Post
Just my $.02. People sometimes get annoyed with me for using double contactions like “y’all’re” (“you all are”) and “shouldn’t’ve” (“should not have”). Guess I need to work on that if I’m going to be an English teacher.
The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.
– Henry David Thoreau
Is “won’t” on a par with “aint”?
Zymurgist
You’uns is definitely a western PA invention and it is properly pronounced “yins”. Also, if I remember correctly, the contraction to l’amour in French is called something else and is not properly considered a contraction because it a) follows a specific rule and b) is always used. There is some other name for it. As has already been said, German has plenty of contractions, some formally allowed and some not.
The use of contractions, or for that matter any slang, does not contribute to the dumbing down of America. It is the lack of vocabulary and meaningful discussion, if anything.
TheDude
Here in eastern TN “you’uns” is pronounced much like it looks: “YOO-uns” or “yuhns.”
Don’t forget the classic Southern conversation:
“Jeet yet?”
“Naw.”
“Yawnt to?”
“Ite.”
TENN,
“Whutcha won’t?”
" Dohn matter, knee thing"
By the way, we havin’ breakfast, lunch , or supper? Just sos I’ll know to put sorghum or gravy on the grits.Y’all have you some fun with them cntrctns now, yuh hear.
The only thing I know fur sure is if I hear " you all",I know the speaker a’int from TEXAS.
Italian is loaded with contractions.
il la i le l'
a al alla ai alle al’
in nel nella nei nelle nell’
di del della dei delle dell’
su sul sulla sui sulle sull’
And Welsh has not only contractions, but mutations, by which the first letters of a word regularly change according to a complex set of rules and the last letters of the word previous.
“Amn’t” is (or was) used in Ireland. Two syllables.
John W. Kennedy
“Compact is becoming contract; man only earns and pays.”
– Charles Williams
Back to the posted subject. I use “CAN NOT”, instead of “CAN’T”, for emphasis! “you can not” has more “zing” than “you can’t”. At least with my children. Also, “you’ll be home by 11 o’clock”, doesn’t (does not) have quite the tone of “you WILL be home by…” When my dad used the the former, I knew I had a bit of leeway, the latter, none!
Zymurgist
mr john: don’tcha mean breakfist, dinner, or supper? Round here that’s what you’uns’d say if’n y’all wuz frum th’ country. City folks say lunch. Knoxville lies right on the line that separates the grits-eaters from the hashbrown-eaters. That’s good, cuz I like both! And homegrown maters are good with ANY meal! Yee-haw!
won’t is indeed standard English. *ain’t is not.
Find something better to waste your time on!
Holly sed: I despise this, too. Even worse is when businesses make up catchy spellings such as “Kwik”, as in “Kwik Mart”. I saw a place the other day called “Kountry Korner”. Makes me shudder, but at least they didn’t call it “Kuntry Korner”. I bet they thought about it, though.
Or worse: “Karl’s Kuntry Korner”. (KKK)
I remember on “All in the Family” when Archie was invited to join the Queen’s Community Club. It turned out to be the Kween’s Kommunity Klub.
Such misspellings are partly for legal reasons. A misspelled trademark is a unique trademark, and a unique trademark is more easily defended.
So it’s not entirely in the pursuit of illiterate “cuteness”.
John W. Kennedy
“Compact is becoming contract; man only earns and pays.”
– Charles Williams