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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3Precisely for this reason, I rarely recommend children's stories for beginning learners. They just use so many "imaginary dialectal phrases" for role language. Look up みる and べい (not みん and べえ) separately in a better dictionary. I'm sure you are already familiar with this みる, though. – l'électeur Aug 10 '17 at 15:25
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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")
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ん (ねえ, which makes this 「見ん（見む ）」 in Tohoku dialect according to @Chocolate)
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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."
answered Aug 10 '17 at 15:05
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2東北弁の「べ」と一緒に使うのなら、「ぬ」は「ねぇ」になるのでは・・？「見ねぇべ」って…。「する+べ」は「すんべ/すっべ」、「やる+べ」は「やんべ/やっべ」になって、「しない+べ」は「しねぇべ」、「やらない+べ」は「やらねぇべ/やんねぇべ」になるんだし・・ – Chocolate♦ Aug 13 '17 at 6:10
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2^ 違うと思います・・・。 「みる＋ん」は「みませんか」ではありません。「見る＋ん(= negative ぬ )」 is 「見ん（見ぬ ）」 and means「見ない」. 「見る＋ん(= volitional む )」 is 「見ん（見む ）」 and means 「見よう / 見るだろう」. BUT in Tohoku dialect 「見る＋negative ぬ+べ」 is 「みねえべ」 and means 「見ないだろう」. In Tohoku dialect, 「みんべ」 is the contracted form of 「見る + べ」 (not 見る+negativeぬ+べ), meaning 「みよう」. – Chocolate♦ Aug 13 '17 at 13:33
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2@GabbyQuattrone I think what ǝʇɐןoɔoɥƆ explained was that because this sentence is spoken in Tohoku dialect, you should only consider its grammar in this case. According to Wikipedia, the Tohoku べ attaches to the 終止形 (＝みる) but is changed to みん due to 撥音化＝"ん-ification". In ǝʇɐןoɔoɥƆ's answer it's called "contraction". – siikamiika Aug 13 '17 at 16:09
