I'm not trying to be funny. It is an honest question that I would love to get an answer to.
Dis has only been in use for the past 20 years introduced and maintained by the rap music culture. I've found it in several different dictionaries and none of them seem to complain about it being poor English. From what I've been able to tell, "ain't" has been around since the 18th century and it still is treated as a plague.
Ain't seems to only be referred to as very informal with notes that it should never be used. You can say "dis" in everyday conversation even in formal surroundings and you'd be perfectly immune to ridicule. If you said "ain't" at a dinner party, people would look at you like you had 3 heads.
Every year there are news stories about now the English lexicon keeps growing with new words added all the time - including the famous "D'oh!" uttered by Homer Simpson. THAT'S BARELY A GUTTURAL UTTERANCE! yet it deserves a permanent place in the dictionary. "Ain't" is a 200 year old word that actually has an etymology that explains the word's roots.
I just don't get it.
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