Meaning of いまい in this sentence

Asked Mar 05 '23 at 16:07

Active Mar 05 '23 at 16:07

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こんな嵐の中、まさかここまで郵便を届けにくるやつはいまい、と思っているにちがいない。
He was surely thinking that nobody would deliver mail here in a storm like this. (my TL)

I cannot work out what いまい is doing in this sentence.

I've come across まい as a negative volitional form before, but I'm assuming it is attached to the verb いる here and that doesn't seem like a verb you could make volitional.

To me it would make perfect sense if I replaced いまい with いない (is this true?), so maybe it's just a typo.

asked Mar 05 '23 at 16:07

user3856370

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Also, いる + 〜まい should become いるまい, not いまい. – Kaskade Mar 05 '23 at 16:29
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https://kotobank.jp/word/まい-632809 – aguijonazo Mar 05 '23 at 16:31
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Does this answer your question? ~すまいて after a verb With 一段 verbs ～まい attaches to the 連用形 usually rather than the 終止形 (though I think that's still an option) – Angelos Mar 05 '23 at 23:28
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This まい is for negative inference, not negative volition, so it means the same thing as いないだろう. – naruto Mar 06 '23 at 00:41
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@Kaskade Here いまい and いるまい are interchangeable. The former is considered more tranditional or canonical, but in reality the latter is more common. See my answer in the link. – naruto Mar 06 '23 at 00:41
@naruto Thanks for the correction. Shouldn't have claimed it so boldly... – Kaskade Mar 06 '23 at 10:13

Meaning of いまい in this sentence

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