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2 comments:
I've been reading Alice in Wonderland to my kids and I am struck by the use of apostrophes. Apostrophes mark where letters have been left out of words, so why would we drop some apostrophes and not others?
wo'n't
ca'n't
sha'n't
It's one of those things that have changed over time. Consider the fact that "through" is pronounced "throo" now, though once all the letters were pronounced. Same with "knife," etc.
In the case of can't, if you shorten "cannot," you get "can't" by removing the "no". The same, presumably from "can not."
There is evidence that "shan't" was once "sha'n't."
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