53470
I'm new to learning Japanese and I was watching a Japanese TV drama and came
across this sentence "ちょっと降りよっか。". And it translated as "Let's go down"

I heard that よっか is the colloquial form of ようか. Is this true? Can anyone
please provide a reference on this. Also, か is a question marker, but the
translation seems like a command or a suggestion so what's the exact role of か
in this sentence?
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2017-09-25T14:14:16.620
53468
2017-09-25T19:27:48.267
2017-09-25T19:27:48.267
22126
question
colloquial-language volitional-form particle-か gemination
Regarding ようか and the role of か in it
First, it is common in informal spoken Japanese for syllables to be dropped,
shortened, lengthened or changed in some way. In your example, you are correct
in saying that 降りよっか is an informal, colloquial version of 降りようか. You might
have noticed other 'slang' ways of saying things, such as 寒っ！instead of 寒い！ So
it's not unusual to see syllables changed in informal Japanese.

About か、one function is certainly to specifically mark a direct question, but
it has other functions too, such as indicating uncertainty or as a softener.
In your example, 降りようか literally means "Shall we go down?" but in practice
this is more of an indirect suggestion rather than a direct question. Here's
another example of that same か：  
(1) 今日は外食にしようか。"Let's eat out today". (Shall we eat out today?). You could
just say:  
(2) 今日は外食にしよう。"Let's eat out today". But it has a more decisive tone, like the
speaker is clearly saying they want to eat out and wants the other person to
agree. Sentence (1) has a more restrained tone because of the か、indicating
that the decision would be more collaborative.
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2017-09-25T15:59:26.767
53470
2017-09-25T15:59:26.767
25875
53468
answer