Will 'shan't' ever return? And why did it go?

Trimac20   Fri May 15, 2009 1:45 am GMT
I always liked the word 'shan't' - it reminds me of Pride and Prejudice or something, lol. Besides that I think it's quite a useful word - can't or won't don't have the same meaning really. I think it's related to the decline in the use of 'shall' (perhaps due to changing societal attitudes even?).

Anyway, anyone know how/why it went away and do you think it'll ever be back in 'vogue' like it was in the Victoria era?
MollyB   Fri May 15, 2009 7:56 am GMT
There are 495 examples per one million words in the BNC (http://corpus.byu.edu/bnc/). That's not a few by any means.

Only 99 per one million words in COCA (http://www.americancorpus.org/) though. So it's the Yanks who are killing it. ;-)
Gangsta club   Fri May 15, 2009 8:06 am GMT
In some regions it's being replaced by "I no gonna".

Yo ma bro, I no gonna kill yo man, you ma nigga, how'm I gonna kill ma nigga? Man, what yo take me for?

Yo all can torture me all you want but shit dawg, I no gonna tell yo sorry ass nuttin.

I may be one ugly motherfuckin son of a gangsta bitch, but I no gonna do shit now I gotta ma bitch naggin the shit outta me ova ma every mothefuckin move dawg, I am done with that shit fo good.