mightn't and mayn't

[thereferee]

I often say things like: "I may as well do that tomorrow mayn't I?"

my dp says he's never heard anyone say "mayn't" before and laughs at me ...so i Googled it and found a (very old) thread where everyone was saying that it looks and sounds funny, ugly, hideous, and that they'd never heard it used...although one person said they thought it was "kinda cute" and they could "imagine a British person saying it in their cottage." (It was a US site)

Anyway, what i want to know is:

1. does anyone else say mayn't?
2. has anyone heard anyone else say mayn't?
3. is it okay for me to keep saying mayn't or do I need to try and re-educate myself?

I think I've said it before now but now I'm looking at it written down it looks v.odd!

I have said it under certain circs. Keep saying it; I suspect it's archaic and you can pass yourself off as a classical scholar

I don't say it. It reminds me of something my grandmother (RIP) would say. However, I do say 'bettern't I' which I'm sure is just wrong and I have no idea where it came from!

obviously I wouldn't say: "No, you mayn't go to the ball Cinderella!"

and Jux, you have a point...not so classical actually...but as well as thinking it was "kinda cute" the person thought they "might have read it in Anne of Green Gables or The Secret Garden."

Probably did. I'm sure I've read it in older and more obscure childhood books too; I can almost see the page of one of them. One of those ones that has a character who also says "...'bain't..." and stuff like that.

I like it

"Bain't our kids grubby m'duck...we may as well have got some Gloucester Old Spots instead mayn't we?"

ooh, that'll be me saying 'bain't' Jux, right after I've said 'bettern't I'

haven't ever written it, I believe - but I probably have said it (and might even still do so without noticing) and I wouldn't worry about it, tbh.

your DP is being ignorant - just because he has never heard it doesn't make it wrong (God, nothing annoys me more than this sort of "I've never heard of it/seen it/had it happen therefore it can't be right/real" attitude!) - so I would suggest he is the one who needs re-educating, not you!

have never heard this before - it sounds quite slangish tbh

Ah no, it can't be slangish, it's has a long and illustrious pedigree; why, it's practically aristocratic, doncher know?

Thereferee, art thou from this century, my lady?

Aristocratic I like

More than simply from this century, Huw...maybe a bit of trendsetter - I think one might find everyone's saying it soon...mightn't one?!

I have never said it and never heard anyone ever say it. But it might depend on where you grew up.