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There is this famous quote reputedly from 山本五十六:

やってみせて、言って聞かせて、やらせてみて、 ほめてやらねば人は動かじ。(source)
やってみせ、言ってきかせて、させてみて、誉めてやらねば人は動かじ。(a different version. source)
Do it and show'em; say things and make'em listen; try and let'em do things; and if you don't praise people (for what they do), people don't lift a finger. (My rendering)

It appears 動かじ = 動かず, but I can't find anything on Wikipedia's 四つ仮名 page about this conversion. Is this a marker of Early Modern Japanese or a dialect?

Eiríkr Útlendi
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Eddie Kal
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1 Answers1

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じ(まじ) is an auxiliary verb that means will not (as opposed to ず meaning not). So 動かじ means (People) will not move/take actions.

sundowner
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