2

From the title of a YouTube video:

だるまさんが転んにゃ

From the song じょんから女節:

春は私にゃ 遠すぎる

I suspect the second usage might be a contraction of に and the 関西弁 copula や, but I'm not sure. Did the first one come from んにゃ <= んや <= んである?

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6

There are a few places where にゃ is used in place of certain constructions, but is it possible that these are just someone trying to be cute?

The first one is a contraction of the phrase だるまさんがころんだ, which is a children's game similar to 'red light, green light.' Seems possible that using にゃ is just trying to be childish/cute/catlike in its pronunciation.

The second one is a contraction of には, which also might not be directly related to dialects and simply a contraction based on speech. So while this isn't really cute per se, it certainly could be, but otherwise it just strikes me as a normal contraction.

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  • Yup, I agree on it being a contracted form of には From Binks' Sake, a song from One Piece: 空にゃ輪をかく鳥の唄♪ = It's a song of birds drawing circles in the air.
    – razorramon
    Aug 12, 2013 at 14:38
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    にゃ is also an onomatopoeia for a cat meowing. Go to you youtube and you'll find videos such as this youtube.com/watch?v=fzzjgBAaWZw . So there's likely some word play involved here.
    – blutorange
    Aug 12, 2013 at 17:22

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