“For students of the English language, this is the most enlightening and comprehensive set of essays ever compiled on the iconic word ain’t. It brings together the multifaceted ways in which a shibboleth of language functions socially and linguistically, from its social and stylized use in a full range of situations and genres to its intricate and complex linguistic composition and patterning. An extraordinary contribution to the field!”
Walt Wolfram
William C. Friday Distinguished University Professor, North Carolina State University

“This anthology is a boon to budding writers, their English teachers, or any linguist with an interest in the lexical morphology of English. If I had had access to this material when I was writing the section on contractions in my own grammar, it would have contributed to making it a much more comprehensive treatment. The reader will find here a great resource for the study of this much maligned shibboleth of English sociolects.”
Bruce D. Despain
Linguist; Author of Analytical Grammar of English

“Asked what ain’t was by a foreigner, most English speakers would say it’s ‘just slang,’ a “mistake” permissible only amidst relaxation, used more widely only by the ignorant. Ain’thology sets us straight: ain’t’s history reaches back into the beginnings of English as we know it, it has often been used by thoroughly elegant persons, and it is subject to grammatical rules as complex as the ones that determine when a French person uses the subjunctive. Ain’t is so complicated that it takes legions of scholars to figure it all out, and in this book we hear from no fewer than seventeen of them.”
John McWhorter
Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University; Author of The Power of Babel, Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue and The Language Hoax

“You ain’t read nothin’ yet until you read Patricia Donaher and Seth Katz’s salmagundi on the language’s most problematic word. The chapters in this engaging work not only detail origins and morphosyntax, but also provide a plethora of excursions into the sociolinguistics and pragmatics of ain’t, from its use in baseball, on the internet, in various regions to its appearance in other languages. Ain’t many single words deserve such extensive treatment; ain’t surely does, and here are many good ones.”
Dennis Preston
Regents Professor, Oklahoma State University; Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Michigan State University; Director of Research on the Dialects of English in Oklahoma (RODEO); Author of Folk Linguistics and Needed Research in American Dialects

“Patricia Donaher and Seth Katz’s Ain’thology: The History and Life of a Taboo Word proves that, whatever one thinks of the history, ain’t is a living and productive item of American English. It is the antidote to any knee-jerk reaction to ain’t, because it shows, in thirteen carefully planned, complementary chapters, how – in spite of persistent stigma – ain’t is developing new uses distinct from its history. […] One thing is sure: ain’t is not a relic, not a static or historical item of American speech. Ain’thology overturns assumptions and lays down the truth about that much used and abused word. It’s not just a linguistic but an American story. Ain’thology surveys the broad landscape of American speech by focusing on that one infamous word.”
Michael Montgomery
Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English and Linguistics, University of South Carolina in Columbia

“In this volume, Donaher and Katz bring together scholars of various theoretical stripes to explore the many dimensions of ain’t. The conversation features an impressive cast of experts representing an exceptional range of academic perspectives. The analyses draw insights from fields as varied as sociolinguistics, lexicography, dialect geography, corpus linguistics, literary criticism, and more. The collection offers fresh perspectives on the historical development of ain’t and its many functions within the grammatical structure of English. We find studies of ain’t in a variety of dialects along with investigations of its use in literary contexts. What emerges is a richly detailed portrait of a truly fascinating word. The books serves as a model for fruitful cross-disciplinary research on language, and through the varied explorations of this one word, readers gain a valuable perspective on language more generally.”
Dr Matthew Gordon
Associate Professor of English and Linguistics, University of Missouri-Columbia

“Questioning the denigration of the word “ain’t” and tracing its history and modern usage, this impressive and engaging collection illuminates the word's wide array of uses and dialect contexts. Not only do the essays provide thorough, rich contexts for the term in the history of English, they also assess its usage in a number of different specific dialect communities, including Appalachian and creole settings. A real strength of the volume is how it explicates the word's usage in media, ranging from the Internet to Latino comics to primetime television dramas. The collection provides an important and lively contribution to scholarship in the area.”
Leigh H. Edwards
Florida State University; Author of The Triumph of Reality Television and Johnny Cash and the Paradox of American Identity