Where do we get the sentence affix 'innit'?

[aelfheah]

Today it's usually said after a sentence as a joke, made popular by Sascha Baron Cohen as 'Ali G', mimicking the lower class street hoodies and criminals, but where did it originate?

 

Was it a Cockney thing that replaced "isn't it"? I remember a streetwise guy that my mate knew from the Capital saying it way back in the 90's, but he wasn't uneducated or a criminal?

 

I used to notice that many Asians of all ages and backgrounds, said this often, but not the Asian youths so much (then).

 

Seems as if it's almost Oxford dictionary-fare, but we don't know where, who or what it evolved from?

[Forumosaurus]

Older Yorkshire people still say in't it.

 

Maybe evolved from that.

[aelfheah]

Possibly, and we do also say some variants of 'innit' instead of 'isn't it'?

[HeadingNorth]

It used to be a South Wales thing to add "isn't it?" on the ends of sentences where - to anyone not from South Wales - it didn't seem to make much sense having it there. I'm not sure that the modern "innit?" trend is connected to that, though.

[Draggletail]

I was born and brought up in West Yorkshire - we used to say 'in't it'

(actually, I still do!)

[Forumosaurus]

Possibly, and we do also say some variants of 'innit' instead of 'isn't it'?

 

As you can see under my username, I'm still old school. hah