11598
I started playing another old game, [Game Boy Wars Advance
2](http://www.nintendo.co.jp/n08/bgwj/), and I ran across this bit of
dialogue:

> ま、どのみち、マクロランドに **行きゃあ** 、  
>  いやでも戦わなきゃなんねえんだ。

I think this is something like:

> ま、どのみち、マクロランドに **行けば** 、  
>  いやでも戦わなければならないのだ。

Thanks to [a helpful comment by Tsuyoshi
Ito](http://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/511?m=7952002#7952002), I
learned that `おけば` can be contracted to `おきゃ`. More generally, I learned that
`e + ば` can be contracted to `ゃ` (small や). Based on this rule, I'm guessing
that `行きゃ` is a contraction of `行けば`.

Of course, the dialogue I quoted says `行きゃあ`, not `行きゃ`. My guess is that `e +
ば` can _also_ be contracted to `ゃあ`, and based on this I guess that both
`行きゃあ` and `行きゃ` are contracted forms of `行けば`. Is this correct?

(My other guess is that perhaps it's `行ければ`...?)
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-03-31T03:28:59.823
11597
2013-03-31T03:52:05.300
2013-03-31T03:52:05.300
1628
question
contractions spoken-language
Are 行きゃあ and 行きゃ both contractions of 行けば?
The extra あ only comes from lengthening the きゃ and could equally well have
been written 行きゃ～. Just in the middle of the sentence it looks better as 行きゃあ.

The sound is lengthened, because there is a small break when saying the
sentence. For example, in

> 行きゃいいじゃねぇか  
>  Why don't you go?

a lengthening wouldn't be natural.

I presume if you really want, 行ければ can also be contracted to 行きゃ, but 行けりゃ
probably works better.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-03-31T03:48:23.017
11598
2013-03-31T03:48:23.017
1628
11597
answer