Contraction of ～てるのか


伸ばしてんのか？髪。。。

I was under the impression that the て form followed by ん was a contraction of
～てるの. However, in this sentence we have a のか following it. The のか sounds like
it's supposed to nominalize and question the previous phrase, though I'm not
sure how that works, even having read a few past posts on the subject.

My attempt at translation is:

You're growing it out? Your hair?

I don't see any pondering going on there, though, so I'm not confident.

**Edit**

伸ばしてのか？

Seems basically the same to me at this point, which may help explain my
confusion.




There may be certain dialects where it is otherwise, but ～ているの, in the most
colloquial standard Japanese, contracts to ～てんの, not simply ～てん, on its own.
Before certain だ it can contract a little further: in colloquial speech,
何をしているのだ can appear as 何してんだ. That may be the source of your confusion. I
guarantee you, you will never hear 伸ばしてのか？ People simply do not say it.

Also, are you familiar with the ～のだ construction? The の here was probably
originally a nominalizer, but over time it grew into its own thing. ～のだ offers
an explanation; ～のか asks for one (besides when ～のだ is paired with a question
word like 何, in which case ～のか would sound rhetorical). That is a very
simplified explanation; it might be better to look into it yourself.




There may be certain dialects where it is otherwise, but ～ているの, in the most
colloquial standard Japanese, contracts to ～てんの, not simply ～てん, on its own.
Before certain だ it can contract a little further: in colloquial speech,
何をしているのだ can appear as 何してんだ. That may be the source of your confusion. I
guarantee you, you will never hear 伸ばしてのか？ People simply do not say it.

Also, are you familiar with the ～のだ construction? The の here was probably
originally a nominalizer, but over time it grew into its own thing. ～のだ offers
an explanation; ～のか asks for one (besides when ～のだ is paired with a question
word like 何, in which case ～のか would sound rhetorical). That is a very
simplified explanation; it might be better to look into it yourself.

