words - What is the meaning of 「まちいな」?

Here is the sentence said by Kansai speaker who was capturing 2 boys who were chasing another guy.

まちいな　あんさんたち。

I think the word would mean 待つ with particle な emphasizing the emotion but I would like to know what the exact Japanese standard dialect form of the word really is.

Answer

In some dialects spoken in the western part of Japan, you can elongate the last vowel of the masu-stem to make an imperative form:

• 歩きい。 (dialect)　＝　歩け。 Walk.


• 見い。 (dialect)　＝　見ろ。 Watch.


• [待ちい]{LHL}。 (dialect) ＝　[待て]{HL}。 Wait.



• [食べえ]{LHL}。 (dialect)　＝　[食べろ]{LHL}。 Eat.

(From my personal experience, I feel this is mainly used in Chugoku/Shikoku region, but I may be wrong. See 西日本方言#文法)

You can attach various sentence-end particles like な, や, or よ, as usual.

(Attaching な to this kind of imperative may be specific to Osaka dialect. I found this article: 「大阪方言の命令形」に後接する終助詞ヤ・ナ (PDF))

• すぐ来【き】いや。 (dialect)　＝　すぐ来【こ】いよ。 Come at once.


• はよう寝えよ。 (dialect)　＝　はやく寝ろよ。 Go to bed now.



• [待ちいな]{LHLL}。 (dialect)　＝　[待てよ]{HLL}。 Wait.

Note that you can use な to form positive imperative in standard Japanese, too. But the last vowel of the masu-form is not elongated in the standard Japanese. Also see the difference in accents.

Using な in positive instead of negative imperative (e.g. 行きな)

• [待ちな]{LHH}。　＝　[待て]{HL}。


• [食べな]{LHH}。　＝　[食べろ]{LHL}。