Odd, probably local language usage example - Bettern't

In My Humble Opinion
1

Here’s a weird thing I have heard overheard in my locality ore than once (which makes me suspect it’s a regional habit of central southern England)

“I’d bettern’t do that, better I?”

Meaning: “I had better not do that, had I?”

In turn meaning: “It would be better if I did not do that, would it not?”

(the rhetoric “had I?” is not uncommon at all in UK English - it’s only very weakly requesting actual confirmation - it’s really just a sort of repetition. I don’t need to explain that any further, do I?

But “bettern’t” (actually sometimes “bettn’t”) and “better I?” - anyone heard this before?

2

If you mean the clipped “o”, then yes, when I hear it in America it sounds like “I better not do that, right?” I guess if they speak quickly it would sound more like “I betternot do that, right?”, but to me it doesn’t sound like “bettern’t” here.

3

Yeah, this is a definite contraction in the style of “should not” to “shouldn’t”, and used in the same way - i.e:
“I shouldn’t do that, should I?”
“I bettern’t do that, better I?”

I don’t like it - it always comes across sounding really stupid, but it seems fairly common here.

4

I usedn’t to say that much, but people around here have got me doing it, too.

5

Bettern’t squash?

6

Sounds all local-color and charming, to me. But I’m American.

No, I’ve never heard people say it anywhere in America. The “better I?” at the end stands out more than contracting “better not.”

7

Bettern’t (pronounced better-rint) I used to hear a lot in the northeastern corner of PA when I was a kid but not as much now. I always took it as being from the odd mixture of Slavic and Irish/Welsh accents that used to be common in the “hard coal” days.

8

I amn’t about to use bettern’t.