In English, “ain’t” is a marker (rightly or wrongly) of a lack of education/intelligence. You can tell something about a person who says, “I ain’t going” as compared to someone who says, “I’m not going.”
I can translate “I ain’t” into Spanish, but it seems to lose the connotations.
Are they any equivalent markers in Spanish? And how does that translate back into English?
I don’t have more than a few words of Spanish; but do want to note that it’s trickier than described in the first post, because “ain’t” is also used for emphasis by people who know and usually use the correct grammar.
The person who says and writes ‘I’m not going to town today’ may say and write ‘that ain’t gonna happen!’
Granted, but I’m looking for something that’s used outside of humorous context, with the speaker imitating the usage deliberately instead of naturally.
I can give you a South Texas Spanish example that isn’t proper.
Some people say “pos no” instead of “pues no.” “Well then I ain’t going” would translate into “pos no voy a ir” instead of the correct “pues no voy a ir” as the correct translation of “well then, I’m not going to go.”
Given the number of dialects and regional forms, I don’t know if you’re going to find something universal across Spanish. Something that’s substandard in Spain might be perfectly OK in Argentina or Guatemala.
One marker might be not using the subjunctive where it’s appropriate. (This is also substandard in English, but the subjunctive is so rudimentary declining in usage that it may not be noticed.) I recall that 30 years ago a Honduran Spanish tutor I knew in Colorado was disdainful of his Mexican-American students because they didn’t know/learn the subjunctive.
A Colombian friend of mine who is from the lower class uses the infinitive instead of a conjugated form of the verb when she texts me. However, I think this could be a personal idiosyncrasy because I’ve never seen anyone else do this (or heard it in speech).
When I was in college, a foreign language requirement was added pretty late in the game. I quickly added Spanish, as did a friend who was from Venezuela and struggled a bit with English.
Our teacher was Cuban. My Venezuelan friend would get into vicious fights with her over grammar/usage. Neither would back down. He once told me “she speaks like a common whore!”
I guess I (native Spain Spanish and translator) could try to help if I understood the precise question. How do you translate “I ain’t”? Just those two words? I would struggle with that. Does the sentence continue? Because “I ain’t” could be translated in many different ways depending on how the sentence goes. FlikThe Blue’s suggestion is valid for Spain too, not only South Texas.