The full sentence comes from the story of 力太郎.
Here it is:
「ばあさん や。この あか で にんぎょう を つくって みんべえ。」
I understand all the words except みんべえ, which I couldn't find in my dictionary.
Is this an old phrase?
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Sign up to join this communityThe full sentence comes from the story of 力太郎.
Here it is:
「ばあさん や。この あか で にんぎょう を つくって みんべえ。」
I understand all the words except みんべえ, which I couldn't find in my dictionary.
Is this an old phrase?
みんべえ is a collapsed pronunciation of みるべえ or みるべ.
る in verbs often contracts to ん in colloquial speech when followed by some words, eg:
[何]{なに}[見]{み}てるのよ! → [何]{なに}[見]{み}てんのよ!
バカなことするなよ。 → バカなことすんなよ。
みる here is a subsidiary verb (補助動詞) and means "try doing~~".
The べえ is a prolonged べ. べ is a sentence-final particle (終助詞) mainly used in Tohoku dialect, meaning ~(だ)ろう, ~(で)しょう, ~(し)よう, ~(し)ましょう. Here it's used as old man's speech (老人語), a kind of role language (役割語) in fiction.
Examples of the use of べ:
いくべ。 ≂ 行こう。 / 行きましょう。
んだべ。 ≂ そうだろう。 / そうでしょう。
どうすんべ。/ どうすっべ。 (< どうするべ)≂ どうしよう? / どうしましょう。
So the phrase in your example can be rephrased:
「つくってみんべえ。」 ≂ 「つくってみよう。 / つくってみましょう。」
"Let's try making~"
I think it's old or a different dialect for みよう。
I will explain my reasoning as follows.
As said by @l'électeur, let's break みんべえ up into みん and べい instead.
みん will break up into みる and ん.
みる (in this case, helps indicate to "try making")
+
ん (ねえ, which makes this 「見ん(見む )」 in Tohoku dialect according to @Chocolate)
+
べい(which can indicate invitation) = みんべい
In Tohoku dialect, 「みんべい」 is the contracted form of 「見る + べ」, meaning「みよう」。
ばあさんや。この あか で にんぎょう を つくって みよう。
”Old woman. Let's try and make a doll from this dirt."