手ぇ & つないで meaning and translation help


I've been reading よつばと！ and I'm on a chapter where Fuuka has a crush on a guy.
She says this:

> 手ぇつないで歩いてたの

I assume the small e is just for emphasis/extension and it doesn't seem to
serve a grammatical function (though I'd like to know that for sure), but
that's not what poses a problem for me. I have no idea what つないで means. I
can't find a definition for it, nor can I for つなぐ, つる, or つある, all of which it
is possible inflections of. Can somebody define this for me?




Yeah I love よつばと! too. The scene is Fuuka was broken-hearted, right?

The verb `つなぐ`, means "connect", "link", or "join".

In some cases especially in informal scene, post-positional particles like `を`
and `に` are omitted.

Example:

[code]

    これから[店]{みせ}へ[行]{い}く。 -> これから店行く。 (I'm gonna go shopping.)
    
    ふーかはあしふといな！ -> ふーかあしふといな！ (Fuuka, your legs are thick!)
    
    だれがうまいことをいえと！ -> だれがうまいこといえと！
    (Literally: Who asked you to say that well put thing!)
    (Free: That's well put!)
    
[/code]

As a result, `[手]{て}ぇつないで[歩]{ある}いてたの` can be translated like:

[code]

    [手]{て}ぇつないで[歩]{ある}いてたの = 手をつないで歩いてたの -> He was walking hand in hand (with a girl).
    
[/code]




Not sure what dictionary you are using but according to プログレッシブ英和ー和英中辞典：

> 手をつないで歩く｜walk hand in hand

You tell us this is spoken so the 手ぇ will be a colloquialism - see comment
from Snail plane below - This lengthening applies to other short (monomoraic)
words such as 歯 and 目. （I recently read about this and will add the reference
when I find it...)

