verbs いらんかね and うれんかった

[JohnCBriggs]

Perhaps someone can help with this.
I have a children's book called かさじぞう that I thought I would try to read after having listened to Natsuko's beautiful version.
However, I think there is some non-Textbook verb conjugation going on here.
Example 1
「かさは　いらんかね。　かさは　いらんかね。」
Example 2
[ばあさま　きょうは　かさが　ひとつも　うれんかった」
The second sentence I think means that he didn't sell any hats. I would have expected うらなかった rather than うれんかった.
Any suggestions?
ジョン

[Airth]

You understand perfectly. It is simply a spoken contraction; turning いらない into いらん, and うれなかった into うれんかった (couldn't/wasn't able to sell)

I couldn't tell you how widely it is used these days, or by which section of society. All I can say is the times I've ever heard it, it's always been from the mouths of old guys.

[Tensei]

Japanese contractions are a pain because not very many sites if any teach them, and they dont really make much sense.

Like how was I supposed to know that -kya is a contraction of kereba? (or something like that)

[JohnCBriggs]

Airthさん
　　　あなたの答えは、どうも　ありがとう　ございます。
I think I have it now. There was one other point I missed。 The potential form of the verb is used as well

売れない　　not able to sell
売らない not sell
in the past tense
売れなかった　 was not able to sell
売らなかった did not sell
in standard japansese.
I guess in non standard japanese we have
　　うらんかった　　was not able to sell
　　うれんかった　　did not sell
so I guess the ない　becomes ん

There is so much added into the conjugations, it is easy to become lost
1) start with the dictionary form 売る
2) make it potential 　　　　　　　　　　売れる
　3) make it negative 　 売れない
　4) make it past 　　 売れなかった
　5) make it non-standard 　　　売れんかった　
What a pain. And this is a children's book.
Thanks
John C. Briggs

[Jason]

The ん negative ending comes from when ぬ was the negative ending instead of ない. It's simply a shortening of this older negative ending. So for example:

いる: dictionary form
V
いらぬ: old negative form
V
いらん

As far as I can tell, it's not all that uncommon. Personally, I like this ん negative. it sounds more "manly" to me for some reason.

[JohnCBriggs]

Jasonさん
どうも　ありがとう　ございました
I cannot thank you enough. I think anything that is not 標準語　ひょうじゅんご (standard Japanese) is very difficult to find in books.
Thanks
ジョン

[Jason]

どういたしまして。 ^_^ Yeah, I wouldn't have known that either if I hadn't read/heard it a lot in games/anime/manga and confirmed it with my sensei.