じゃ/ まい / で

[eeky]

Hi,


1. 断っとくが、そいつは臆病じゃよ。

What is the difference here between saying じゃ and だ? Is じゃ just a dialect variation? Sorry if I have asked similar question before.


2. 三人は前よりもさらにゆっくりと、どんな小さな音も聞 き逃すまいと聞き耳を立てて進んだ。

Is まい a kind of rhetorical negative here, as in English "wasn't that a sound?" meaning about the same as "was that a sound?" (I know that isn't exactly the right translation in this case, but I am just trying to find a loosely comparable example to explain what I mean.)


3. 「なんか悪いもんがこの森をうろついているんでな。ところで、ここの二人はハリー・ポッターとハーマイオニー・グレンジャーだ。学校の生徒でな。」

In the highlighted places, why で and not だ? More rustic speech? Again, sorry if I have asked a similar question before.

 

[Toritoribe]

1)
It's old men's dialect of だ.

2)
まい is an auxiliary verb to express the speaker's will not to do something.

聞き逃すまい ＝ 聞き逃さないようにしよう

3)
The former で is ので/んで for explaining the reason. The latter one is the continuous usage of the -te form of copula. な, not で, gives the nuance of old men's speech.

 

[eeky]

2) Oh yeah, sorry, I misread the meaning of 聞き逃す, hence I couldn't get that interpretation to make sense.

3) In practice, is there any real significant difference with 学校の生徒だな?

 

[Toritoribe]

学校の生徒でな shows that something following it is omitted. It has a nuance to explain the reason why Harry and Hermione is here with him. 学校の生徒だな is used to confirm it (You're students of the school, right?). So they are totally different.

 

[eeky]

Is this dependent on the presence of な? Does the same difference apply to 学校の生徒で versus 学校の生徒だ? I am familiar with ので explaining reason, of course, but something like 学校の生徒で does not look familiar to me.

 

[Toritoribe]

Basically, the context gives it. 学校の生徒で could barely have the same meaning, but 学校の生徒でね is more common also in standard Japanese, so it might be safe to say that the context and な provide that meaning to the sentence.

学校の生徒だ just explains they are students, i.e., な gives the confirmation tone. Thus, 学校の生徒でな, 学校の生徒だな and 学校の生徒だ are all different.

 

[eeky]

I see, thank you.

 

[Toritoribe]

FYI, the difference is the same also in the -te form of a verb vs. the dictionary form / past form of a verb.

雨が降ってて、来れなかった。
「どうして昨日来なかったの？」「雨が降っててね / 雨が降ってて」
(The -te form is explaining the reason why the subject couldn't come yesterday.)

雨が降ってたね。 / 雨が降ってたな。
(for confirmation including self-confirmation or asking agreement)

雨が降ってた。
(just describing a fact)