Nihongo Notes

Phonetic changes in rapid speech (3) nakucha & nakya

Yesterday was a busy day for everyone at the office; Miss Yoshida seemed particularly busy. At about 4:30, she looked up at the clock on the wall and said to herself
    Saa, isoganakucha.
    (Well, I must hurry)
Then Mr Tanaka also said,
    Soo da. Boku mo isoide kore yaranakya.
    (Right. I have to hurry with this too.)
Mr Lerner understood what they meant, but he still found it difficult to use such contracted forms as ...nakucha and ...nakya himself.
The form ...kute wa (if one does.../if it isn't...) is often contracted as ...nakucha.
    Konna ni atsukucha shigoto ga dekinai.
    (One cannot work when it is as hot as this)

    Isoganakucha ma ni aimasen yo.
    (If you don't hurry, you won't be in time.)

Consequently, the expression ...nakute wa narimasen/ikemasen (one must...) often becomes...nakucha narimasen/ikemasen in rapid speech, and the last part narimasen/ikemasen is often left out.
    Isoganakucha.
    (I must hurry)

    Moo oitoma shinakucha.
    (I must leave now - said when visiting someone)

Another expression ...nakereba narimasen/ikemasen (one must...) is often pronounced as ...nakya in rapid speech.
    Isoganakya.
    (I must hurry)

    Moo oitoma shinakya.
    (I must leave now.)

...kereba is contracted as ...kya as well as kerya; in the latter case ...nakereba becomes ...nakerya, as in Isoganakerya.

Of these three contractions ...nakucha is the most commonly used in Tokyo, especiallly by young people. All of these contracted forms are common in Tokyo, while they are not in common use in the Kansai district.

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Nihongo Notes is taken from a series of columns that appeared in The Japan Times
written by Osamu and Nobuko Mizutani They are not designed to teach Japanese, so much
as they are to better one's Japanese.

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