苦労せん is the contracted form of what?


I'm translating a manga in which one character use a very slangy or contracted
way of speaking while the others talk more standard-like. I've already
encountered the stem+ん as a short form the negative stem+ない. But what is the
-せん attached to 苦労. I think it'd been translated as "there's no problem" but
I'd like to know the grammar behind it. Thanks




Actually, you've already got the right answer! The verb in question is する, and
_one_ of its negative stems (未然形) is せ〜, as in せず, せぬ, and as you've just
discovered, せん. The other negative stem of する is the well-known し〜. Note that
these are _not_ interchangeable: **せない is ungrammatical, as is **しず.

The only verbs that have this extra negative stem are する and its relatives.
The auxiliary verb 〜ます would be one of them if **〜ましない were grammatical, but
it is not.

