Is まい as in あるまい really only used in literary texts or TV?


My understanding --admittedly limited-- is that in Japanese, people say as
much as they can with as little words as possible. So I wondered why ないだろう
would be used in everyday speaking instead of まい? The latter seems shorter and
easier to use than the former.




To answer the question in the title, yes, it is generally only used in
literary text and, I would say less often, on TV. It could also potentially be
used in a really formal speech or something like that.

I remember in my 9th or 10th month of studying the language I tried this out
on a Japanese friend, saying something like `行くまい` instead of `行かないだろう`. I got
a weird look followed by a laugh, and he explained that it would never be used
this way. The only explanation he could offer was that it sounded archaic, and
this is the reason it's not generally used - the same reason that we don't
start using old English in English conversations.

Sure, it's fair to say that users of the Japanese language tend to shorten
things a lot, but that's not to say that the shortest way is always the normal
or "modern" way. For example, the archaic form `いかぬ` meaning `いけない` is not
used in modern Japanese.




To answer the question in the title, yes, it is generally only used in
literary text and, I would say less often, on TV. It could also potentially be
used in a really formal speech or something like that.

I remember in my 9th or 10th month of studying the language I tried this out
on a Japanese friend, saying something like `行くまい` instead of `行かないだろう`. I got
a weird look followed by a laugh, and he explained that it would never be used
this way. The only explanation he could offer was that it sounded archaic, and
this is the reason it's not generally used - the same reason that we don't
start using old English in English conversations.

Sure, it's fair to say that users of the Japanese language tend to shorten
things a lot, but that's not to say that the shortest way is always the normal
or "modern" way. For example, the archaic form `いかぬ` meaning `いけない` is not
used in modern Japanese.

