Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: mayn't

Ma davvero si usa la contrazione di may not ?
A me non mi sembra di averla mai sentita !
Yours
Sal

A me non mi sembra di averla mai sentita !
Io l'inglese lo conosco poco, ed č anche per me la prima volta.
In ogni caso:
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=mayn't
http://www.bartleby.com/61/56/M0165600.html
Una breve ricerca su google:
May: 10.100.000
May not : 7.350.000
Mayn't: 6.560
can: 10.300.000
can not: 2.570.000
can't: 7.150.000
cannot 6.750.000
do 9.840.000
do not: 8.690.000
don't 8.840.000
should 9.310.000
should not 5.370.000
shouldn't 2.760.000
Direi che come uso č abbastanza bassino.
Sebastiano
--
Rachel: Yes, my wind. How do you expect me to grow if you won't let me blow?
Ross: You... you know I... I don't have a... have a problem with that.

Io non l'ho mai ne' vista ne' sentita, pero' non mi voglio pronunciare dato che
molte volte dico strafalcioni malgrado viva in un paese di lingua inglese
(beh..si' ...si fa cosi' per dire...)
Prova a vedere se la trovi su google.
ciao
GFC

I checked on Google and found 6,710 documents with mayn't, but of course that
doesn't make it right.  Besides, some of the documents are in languages other
than English. 
bye
GFC

 
Esiste senz'altro, ma è molto antiquato.
Non si usa quasi più da almeno 40 anni, anche perché si usa poco ormai
"may".
-- 
Mary

(beh..si' ...si fa cosi' per dire...)
ROFTL
CC

 A me non mi sembra di averla mai sentita !
It may not be very common in contemporary spoken language, but there are
many
instances of "mayn't" in Englisch literature, including "Alice's Adventures
In Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll.
QUOTE
"I am a selfish girl! but I'll truly try to be better, so he
mayn't be disappointed in me by and by."
...
"We'll all be good to him, because he hasn't got any mother, and he may
come over and see us, mayn't he, Marmee?"
...
"Mayn't I hope you'll change your mind by and by? I'll wait, and say
nothing till you have had more time. Don't play with me, Meg. I didn't
think that of you."
UNQUOTE
Source: 1869, LITTLE WOMEN by Louisa May Alcott
QUOTE
"Yes, we went to school in the sea, though you mayn't believe
it--"
UNQUOTE
Source: Alice's Adventures In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, Chapter 9
QUOTE
"No, you mayn't. I'm a going- as your mother knows- a fishing.
That's where I'm going to. Going a fishing."
...
"With your flying into the face of your own wittles and drink! I
don't know how scarce you mayn't make the wittles and drink here, by
your flopping tricks and your unfeeling conduct. Look at your boy:
he is your'n, ain't he? He's as thin as a lath. Do you call yourself a
mother, and not know that a mother's first duty is to blow her boy
out?"
Source: 1859, TALE OF TWO CITIES by Charles Dickens
QUOTE
"I'll complain to your masters of you, so that for the future you mayn't
waste your time on such general propositions, instead of sitting at
your books and learning your lessons."
UNQUOTE
Source: 1879, THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV by Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky,
translated by Constance Garnett
QUOTE
"I mayn't be equil to stand i' the desk at all, come another winter."
...
"Now, father," said Nancy, "is there any call for you to go home to
tea? Mayn't you just as well stay with us?- such a beautiful evening
as it's likely to be."
...
"I wish he mayn't gore anybody, then, that's all," said Jane, not
altogether despising a hypothesis which covered a few imaginary
calamities.
UNQUOTE
Source: 1861, SILAS MARNER, by George Eliot
QUOTE
"More shame for him," cries Honour: "you are to go
to bed to him, and not master: and thof a man may be a very proper
man, yet every woman mayn't think him handsome alike."
...
"Mayn't I make him some jellies too?" said the landlady.
UNQUOTE
Source: 1749, THE HISTORY OF TOM JONES, A FOUNDLING by Henry Fielding
QUOTE
And that there should be those, who are
striving to diminish the Importance of every conquest we make, that
the people mayn't grow too fond of keeping them;
UNQUOTE
Source: LONDON 1757-1775 by Benjamin Franklin
QUOTE
This only manifests the Value they put
on their own Writings, since they think to frighten the Publick into
their Applause, by threatning, that unless you approve what they have
already wrote, they intend never to write again; when perhaps, it
mayn't be a Pin Matter whether they ever do or no.
UNQUOTE
Source: PHILADELPHIA 1726-1757 by Benjamin Franklin
SOURCE
Mayn't I escort you, please?
UNQUOTE
Source: 1808, FAUST by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, translated by George
Madison Priest
QUOTE
Oh dad, mayn't we play owl-and-eagle first!
UNQUOTE
Source: 1875, PEER GYNT by Henrik Ibsen
QUOTE
"Mayn't I dine with you?" Ralph asked.
...
"And now that I've come, at any rate, mayn't I stay?"
...
"I may tell you that, mayn't I? "
UNQUOTE
Source: 1881, THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY by Henry James
QUOTE
I may find Sam soon, or I mayn't; but anyhow he ain't like to be
in a way to tell ye much to-night.
UNQUOTE
Source: 1897, DRACULA by Bram Stoker
QUOTE
"Well, that may be so, and it mayn't."
...
"Well, he don't miss any property by it, because he'll get that
all right; but he's missed seeing his brother Peter die- which he
mayn't mind, nobody can tell as to that- but his brother would a
give anything in this world to see him before he died;..."
...
"Pa, mayn't Tom and Sid and me go to the show?"
...
"Well, we can't resk being as long as we ought to, because it mayn't
take very long for Uncle Silas to hear from down there by New Orleans."
...
"I lay it never sawed
itself off, s'I- somebody sawed it, s'I; that's my opinion, take it or
leave it, it mayn't be no'count, s'I, but sich as 't is, it's my
opinion, s'I, 'n' if anybody k'n start a better one, s'I, let him do
it, s'I, that's all. I says to Sister Dunlap, s'I-"
UNQUOTE
Source: 1885, THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN, by Mark Twain
QUOTE
He said: "Mayn't I go and play now, aunt?"
UNQUOTE
Source: 1876, THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER by Mark Twain
I copied the above from my 1994 CD-ROM "DeskTop BookShop". More recent usage
of "mayn't" I found on the Electronic Library:
QUOTE
Peter might have been warning him--"You mayn't understand the things you do
tonight...." Well, yes.
UNQUOTE
Source: Stahl, Don, The occultation. (short story). Vol. 40, Chicago Review,
09-22-1994, pp 19(7).
QUOTE
CONAN: You mayn't because we're out of time, I'm afraid.
UNQUOTE
Source: NEAL CONAN, Analysis: International perspective on terrorist
attacks. , Talk of the Nation (NPR), 10-01-2001.
QUOTE
They appealed to all to buy tickets which are selling only at Tk 120. "You
mayn't attend the show, but buy at least one ticket because it' ll save a
life" they pleaded.
UNQUOTE
Source: Author not available, Life Foundation's charity concert for ailing
student Dec 28, THE INDEPENDENT. , The Independent (Bangladesh), 12-24-2001.
QUOTE
It mightn't be wise, or pretty. It mayn't be desirable. But that's how it
is. The political situation isn't the determinant.
UNQUOTE
Source: YOSEF LAPID, That's how it is. , Jerusalem Post, 01-15-1997, pp 06.
QUOTE
Lawyers: Oh, no, you mayn't ! It's all sub judice!
UNQUOTE
Source: Author not available, The history of King Tony: Earl Hague, once a
leader, struggles. , Independent, 06-16-2001, pp 8.
---
Xakero

 mayn't be disappointed in me by and by."
SKIP
 < Considering the bulk of your quoting I think you can rest your case.
Thanks to you and to all the people who gave their tuppence
Yours
Sal