What is と in this sentence?

Question

部品が取り寄せになりますので、少々お時間をいただきませんと。(We will have to order the parts, so it will take a little time.)

Is　と　at the end here some abbreviation of かと思います？といけません？ just a question marker like か?

@YangMuye You are always answering questions in the comment sections -- killing the threads in effect. — , Jul 15 '15 at 10:57
@l'électeur I think @ YangMuye is not a native speaker of Japanese and just not confident enough to post an answer. If he posted his comments as answers, would you (as native speaker) upvote or downvote them? Do you have any opinion as to what to do? (The http://meta.japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/593/comments-are-not-for-answers?cb=1 thread on meta is frequently quoted, but it's also quite old. Maybe it's time for a new discussion about this?) — Earthliŋ, Jul 15 '15 at 12:06

eltonjohn · Answer 1 · 2015-07-15T11:49:37.143

2

"と" at the end indicates that the missing part is supposed to be easily speculated and hence left to the listener as an exercise.

One can guess e.g,

部品が取り寄せになりますので、少々お時間をいただきませんと揃いません = We will have to order the parts, so it will take a little time to be available.

Of course, the assumption "easily speculated" is often subjective.

edited Jul 15 '15 at 11:49

answered Jul 15 '15 at 11:02

eltonjohn

+1 for the "left to the reader as an exercise bit." Is と切り acceptable in 文語? – virmaior Jul 15 '15 at 11:40
@virmaior: Thanks. I am not sure if it is *acceptable* in 文語, but I recall that similar "truncated" expressions do exist in abundance. – eltonjohn Jul 15 '15 at 11:54

Chocolate · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-22T14:57:25.930

Is　と　at the end here some abbreviation of かと思います？といけません？

The と is not the quotative と (as in かと思います) but the subjunctive(?) と for the "if" clause (as in といけません).

As you may know, you say:

～しないと。(= ～しないといけない。)
～しなければ。(= ～しなければならない。)
～せねば。(= ～せねばならない。)
～しなくちゃ。(= ～しなくちゃいけない。)
etc.

to mean "have to do~~, should do~~, must do~~", etc.

部品が取り寄せになりますので、少々お時間をいただきませんと。

Here, the いただきませんと is the polite/formal version of もらわないと.
(いただく is the humble form of もらう.)

(～を)もらわないと。(= (～を)もらわないといけない。)

So it literally means "have to be given".
In the polite/formal form, it would be:

(～を)いただきませんと。(= (～を)いただかないといけません。)

It practically means "We need to be given~~."「～をいただく必要があります」。≒「～をいただきます。」/「～をください。(Please give us~~.)」

2 Answers2