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「わしもじゃ」
友蔵が出おくれまいと言いそえた。
"Me too" added Tomozou, not wanting to get a late start.

So I eventually figured out that まい was negative volitional (I hope I'm right) then got stuck thinking that と was quotative and couldn't make any sense of it. The context doesn't really fit with him saying that he won't get at late start

I'm now thinking that と is actually making the previous phrase adverbial, resulting in my above translation. Have I got this correct?

Chocolate
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user3856370
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2 Answers2

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You can think of the ～まいと as ～まいとして.

～うと・～ようと ⇒　～うとして・～ようとして "trying to~~"
～まいと ⇒　～まいとして "trying not to~~"

Examples:

  • 子供を助けようと川に飛び込んだ。⇒ 子供を助けようとして川に飛び込んだ。
  • 涙を見せまいと背を向ける ⇒ 涙を見せまいとして背を向ける
Chocolate
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  • Yourself and @naruto give quite different answers, both of which seem very convincing. Do you think that both interpretations are equally likely? I'd like to know how a Japanese person thinks when they hear this sentence, because for me the structure was clearly the usual "quoteと言う" until I realised that it wasn't. Do you have to stop and think about the meaning or is it immediately clear? – user3856370 Jan 06 '17 at 08:54
  • ～まいと can be rephrased as ～まいと思って depending on the context, but here in your specific example I think it'd sound more natural if you rephrased it as ～まいとして. As for your 2nd question: In your example, it's immediately clear; your brain (unconsciously) sees the omitted quotative と attached to the previous line, reading it as 「『わしもじゃ』 **と** 、友蔵が出おくれまいと(して)言いそえた」 – Chocolate Jan 06 '17 at 10:03
  • Thanks for your clarification. I think I didn't make my second question clear enough though. I'm happy with the implied と on わしもじゃ. My question was about whether filling the gap with として was so obvious to you that you didn't need to think about it. Or whether you had to pause for a moment and choose from either your meaning or naruto's meaning, for example. I guess what I'm asking is, if Naruto had said this sentence to you (with **his** meaning) would you have instantly heard it with **your** meaning, or would you have thought "hold on, that's a bit ambiguous, but he must mean として"? – user3856370 Jan 06 '17 at 10:21
  • To me it was obvious and I didn't need to pause to think about it. ～まいと思って+V and ～まいとして+V mean almost the same thing. I don't think it would be ambiguous. I just think ～まいとして would be a little bit more natural for your sentence here. – Chocolate Jan 06 '17 at 17:26
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This use of と means not saying 出遅れまい, but thinking 出遅れまい. You can think 思って is omitted after the と. The "quotative" particle is often used this way. Like in this example, Even と directly before 言う can sometimes be "..., thinking ..., ..." You can tell only from the context.

See also:

Community
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naruto
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  • Yourself and @chocolate give quite different answers, both of which seem very convincing. Do you think that both interpretations are equally likely? I'd like to know how a Japanese person thinks when they hear this sentence, because for me the structure was clearly the usual "quoteと言う" until I realised that it wasn't. Do you have to stop and think about the meaning or is it immediately clear? – user3856370 Jan 06 '17 at 08:54