Teacher Discussion Forums

I wonder where "won't" (will not) contraction comes from .Any idea?
Michal

ONLINE ETYMOLOGY DICTIONARY wrote:will (v.) - O.E. *willan, wyllan "to wish, desire, want" (past tense wolde), from PIE *wel-/*wol- "be pleasing." The unusual use as a future auxiliary was already developing in O.E. The implication of intention or volition distinguishes it from shall, which expresses or implies obligation or necessity. Contracted forms, especially after pronouns, began to appear 16c., as in sheele for "she will." The form with an apostrophe is from 17c.; won't for will not is first recorded mid-15c. as wynnot, later wonnot (1584) before the modern form emerged 1667. Willing is O.E. willendliche.

Evolution seems to be the reason.

Iain

Although I have a few online dictionaries ,none of them is Etymology;sounds interesting-


Thanks,Iain

Vowel assimilation:

/i/ -> [o] before [a]

E.g., willan -> w[o]llan


Consonant assimilation:

/l/ -> [n] before [n]

E.g., w[o]llan -> wo[n]an


Deletion of -an before [n]ot:

E.g. wonan not -> won not -> Modern won't

Etymology is a lot of guesstimation. I hazard the following: The "LL" in "will" has simply been dropped in favour of the "N" from "not"; the first is not necessary, the latter is. A consonant combination "LN" tends over time to attrit or assimilate; there are uncounted instances that serve as models, for instance the Latin prefix "con-" in front of words whose initial is not an "N", as for example "lateral" (side): CoLLateral; or in front of 'nexion" it becomes "coNNection".
For vowels to change from "O" to other vowels, there are plenty of examples too. Note the variation from "twO" to "twElve".
This processus was described by J. Grimm, one of the two brothers who recorded fairy tales from various Indo-European languages that often have root words in common, characterised by such phonetic shifts.