12646
ある is listed in dictionaries as having ラ行五段活用, which would suggest a negative
form of あらない. However, that form does not exist. Why not?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-08-27T04:27:15.033
12644
2014-06-03T16:40:38.057
2014-06-03T16:36:50.953
3437
3437
question
verbs conjugations irregularities-exceptions
Why isn't ある's negative form あらない?
To my knowledge, this is historically shrouded in mystery, so there is no
authoritative answer. (I'd be very interested in hearing one myself.)

[This page](http://www012.upp.so-
net.ne.jp/nikodebu/laboratory/report/report3.htm) speculates (in,
unfortunately, a very authoritative tone, yet with no citations...) that the
negation of ある (あらない) did at one point exist, but was discarded for the
antonym of ある (ない). _(N.B., we do at least know that another negation of ある
(あらず), did exist historically, so the first part of this claim isn't too hard
to believe.)_

Their reasoning goes something like...

```

    word    negation   antonym
    開く     開かない　　　閉める
    大きい　　大きくない　　小さい
    ある　　　あらない　　　ない 
    
```

In these cases, none of the negations match the antonym ("to not open" != "to
close", "not big" != "small") except for ある, and since ない is shorter, the あらない
form was discarded.

* * *

I don't know if I entirely buy their argument or not. It seems logical but
honestly anything could have happened historically for us to end up in our
current position, so I'd personally be reluctant to actually subscribe to this
theory without any evidence.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-08-27T04:52:40.363
12645
2013-08-27T04:58:40.720
2013-08-27T04:58:40.720
3097
3097
12644
answer
In modern Japanese, instead of the conjugation [未然形]{みぜんけい}+[無]{な}い, another
word is used to express the plain negative, namely 無い.

This a process called suppletion, supplying a certain conjugational form with
a different word. It exists in English as well. You don't say _good and
gooder_ , you talk about _better_ , which comes from Proto-Indo-European
*bhAd- _good_. Further examples include _bad_ - _worse_ , and _be_ - _is_ -
_was_.

However, this kind of conjugation exists in Classical Japanese. Here the
negative is expressed via 未然形+ず, and ある is no exception: あらず. ず , or perhaps
better known in its form ぬ, is the helper verb of negation.

>
> 「[舟]{ふね}は[水]{みず}に[非]{あら}ざれば[行]{ゆ}かず。[水]{みず}、[舟]{ふね}に[入]{い}れば[則]{すなわ}ち[没]{ぼっ}す」

Even in modern Japanese, you can still say あらへん (Kansai dialect).

Lastly, although rare, there are attested instances of the form あらない (see
日本国語大辞典, entry あらない)

> せく事はあらない
>
> 土佐【とさ】とて鬼の国でも蛇【へび】の国でもあらないものを

There is also あらなくに, but the な here is analyzed as the く-nominalization of ず.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-08-27T05:08:46.947
12646
2014-06-03T16:40:38.057
2020-06-17T08:18:27.500
-1
3275
12644
answer