わからない vs わかね in My Boss My Hero


I was watching My Boss My Hero, and I could have sworn he said わかね instead of
わからない. Is this feasible? Is there some dialect that drops off ない for ね?




It's fairly common for both `ai` and `ae` to be slurred to `ee` in colloquial
speech.

For example:

  * じゃない → じゃねぇ `jan **ai** → jan **ee**`
  * のみたい → のみてぇ `nomit **ai** → nomit **ee** `
  * おまえ → おめぇ `om **ae** → om **ee**`
  * てまえ → てめぇ `tem **ae** → tem **ee**`

Your example has an additional contraction. When a vowel is dropped between
`r` and `n`, you end up with `rn`. This isn't pronounceable, so it assimilates
to `nn`.

  * わからない → わかんない `waka **ran** ai → *waka **rn** ai → waka **Nn** ai`

Then this undergoes the other contraction we already talked about:

  * わかんない → わかんねぇ `wakaNn **ai** → wakaNn **ee**`

Japanese is somewhat sensitive to length, so that `ん` doesn't drop out very
easily, and the vowel at the end tends to stay long. It's possible that they
_were_ both shortened, but without hearing it, my guess is that it was `わかんねぇ`
and not `わかね`.

As for _where_ this happens, I have to admit I'm no expert on dialects. But as
I understand it, it's fairly widespread. I've read that it happens in and
around Tōkyō, and I know it happens in other parts of the Kantō area as well.
To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if it happened all over Japan. (But the
charts I found only mentioned the Kantō area.)

