What is じゃ in じゃない?


Since there is possibility of "じゃありません" instead of "じゃないです" (which is logical,
given "ありません" is polite "ない"), and it also seemed that I have seen "じゃ" used
without "ない", I'd like to ask, what does "じゃ" exactly mean? It looks like some
kind of particle which was used in old Japanese but is not used anymore.




It's a contraction of `では` (particle `で`, which has various uses, and the
topic marker `は`). It is not particularly related to classical Japanese, and
is not used only with negation.




It's a contraction of `では` (particle `で`, which has various uses, and the
topic marker `は`). It is not particularly related to classical Japanese, and
is not used only with negation.

