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I understand that polite forms like yomimasu are actually (or originated as)
infinitive yomi + auxiliary verb masu in its plain non-past form. Then past
form yomimashita is just infinitive yomi + plain past mashita.

So I wonder what is the origin of the negative form, such as yomimasen. Given
the above, one might naively expect a plain non-past negative form of masu,
which would give yomimasanai. Is -masen "explainable" in terms of other forms?
Is it a contraction from an originally longer form?
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2016-11-05T22:46:12.010
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2022-07-10T10:03:52.083
2019-05-24T16:34:14.660
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etymology politeness history negation auxiliaries
Origin of ません (-masen)?
According to Shogakukan's big 国{こく}語{ご}大{だい}辞{じ}典{てん}, the verb ending _-masu_
ultimately derived from a combination of humble polite auxiliary verb 参{まい}る
plus the verb する, as a shift from either _‑ mairasuru_ or possibly _‑
maisuru_. The final _‑ su_ in modern _‑ masu_ conjugates identically to
classical _su_ / _suru_. The 未然形{みぜんけい} ("incomplete form") that is used to
form negatives ends in _‑ a_ in most classical 四段{よだん} verbs (which became
modern 五段{ごだん} or "type 1" verbs), such as _kaka ‑_ as the _mizenkei_ for
書{か}く, or _ika ‑_ as the _mizenkei_ for 行{い}く, etc. However, classical _su_ /
_suru_ is irregular, and its _mizenkei_ is _se ‑_ instead. (This is still the
_mizenkei_ for _suru_ in some modern dialects, such as Kansai-ben.) So the
negative of _‑ masu_ was formed as the _mizenkei_ of _‑ mase‑_ plus the
negative ending _-nu_ , as _‑ masenu_. Final _‑ nu_ contracts to just _‑ n_,
giving us modern _‑ masen_.
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2016-11-06T00:43:08.597
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Just wanted to add a little extra context to ます and it's modern day 否定形, ません.
ます appears in the Nara period as an honorific way to say be/go. It was later
used as a honorary supplementary verb (a verb attached to the end of another
verb to show respect/honor). The latter usage survives into the modern day
with the same usage.

The difference between classical and the modern day is that the classical verb
was a 四段 verb so the 未然形 was まさ and the simple negative was まさず. Eventually
the 連体形 of ず (simple negative auxiliary) as well as all
verbs/adjectives/adjectival verbs replaced the 終止形 (modern day 辞書形). So まさず
become まさぬ. Eventually ぬ (negative auxiliary 連体形／終止形) became ん in 関西 (Kansai
region) and ない in 関東 (Tokyo and surrounding areas).

So you would expect like all 五段 verbs that ます would've been conjugated in
modern Japanese like まさない or まさん but this clearly isn't the case. Instead it
is conjugated like a サ変 verb + ん(ぬー＞ん), ません. This is more than likely due to
the misinterpretation of ます as being the combination of (何々 "something")＋す.
This is completely understandable as a lot of verbs in classical/modern
Japanese are formed by something + す. For example, to make a Sino-Japanese
noun a verb just attach す (or in modern Japanese する). All of the verbs formed
this way follow a サ変 conjugation because they are inflections of す／する.

In short. ます exists as a verb with the same function in both classical and
modern Japanese. At some point, ます was misinterpreted as a サ変 verb and is now
conjugated like a サ変 verb plus ん.
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