I'm translating a manga in which one character use a very slangy or contracted
way of speaking while the others talk more standard-like. I've already
encountered the stem+ん as a short form the negative stem+ない. But what is the
-せん attached to 苦労. I think it'd been translated as "there's no problem" but
I'd like to know the grammar behind it. Thanks
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2012-09-08T14:04:19.490
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2013-04-25T09:37:44.193
2013-04-25T09:37:44.193
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dialects contractions negation spoken-language
苦労せん is the contracted form of what?
Other samples from this character in your manga would be helpful to confirm
this, but my guess is that せん is equivalent to しない (and possibly derived from
せぬ, see Zhen Lin's comment below). Then, 苦労せん means something like "don't
worry" or "don't fret". This is really part of the group of dialects from
'Western Japan'. In particular, [九州弁]{きゅうしゅうべん} uses せんで for しないで or せんでいい for
しなくていい etc.
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2012-09-08T14:17:01.593
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2012-09-08T14:47:43.130
2012-09-08T14:47:43.130
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answer
Actually, you've already got the right answer! The verb in question is する, and
_one_ of its negative stems (未然形) is せ〜, as in せず, せぬ, and as you've just
discovered, せん. The other negative stem of する is the well-known し〜. Note that
these are _not_ interchangeable: **せない is ungrammatical, as is **しず.

The only verbs that have this extra negative stem are する and its relatives.
The auxiliary verb 〜ます would be one of them if **〜ましない were grammatical, but
it is not.
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2012-09-08T14:50:43.877
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answer