Kansai Dialect - Grammar - Verbs - Negative

Negative

In informal speech, the negative verb ending, which is -nai in standard Japanese, is expressed with -n and -hen, as in ikan and ikahen "not going", which is ikanai in standard Japanese. -N is a transformation of the classical Japanese negative form -nu and is also used for formal speech and idioms in standard Japanese. -Hen is the result of contraction and phonological change of ren'yōkei + wa senu, the emphatic form of -nu. The godan verbs conjugation before -hen has two varieties: the more common conjugation is -ahen like ikahen, but -ehen like ikehen is also used in Osaka. When the vowel before -hen is i, -hen sometimes changes to -hin, especially in Kyoto. The past negative form is -nkatta and -henkatta, a mixture of -n/hen and the standard past negative form -nakatta. In traditional Kansai-ben, -nanda and -henanda is used in the past negative form.

• godan verbs: tsukau ("to use") becomes tsukawan and tsukai wa senu > tsukaiyahen > tsukawahen, tsukaehen
• kami-ichidan verbs: okiru ("to wake up") becomes okin and oki wa senu > okiyahen > okihen, okihin
  • one mora verbs: miru ("to see") becomes min and mi wa senu > miyahen > meehen, miihin
• shimo-ichidan verbs: taberu ("to eat") becomes taben and tabe wa senu > tabeyahen > tabehen
  • one mora verbs: neru ("to sleep") becomes nen and ne wa senu > neyahen > neehen
• s-irregular verb: suru becomes sen and shi wa senu > shiyahen > seehen, shiihin
• k-irregular verb: kuru becomes kon and ki wa senu > kiyahen > keehen, kiihin
  • Kōhen, a mixture keehen with standard konai, is also used lately by young people, especially in Kobe.

Generally speaking, -hen is used in almost negative sentences and -n is used in strong negative sentences and idiomatic expressions. For example, -n toite or -n totte (do not, standard -nai de), -n demo (even not, standard -nakutemo), -n to (1. unless, standard -nai to or -nakute wa; 2. without, standard -nai de or -zu ni) etc. -N to akan and -na akan (na is a transformation of neba) are often used as "must" and -n to/-na akan may be replaced by -n to/-na ikan and -na naran (-na naran is often shortened to -n naran).