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I came upon this line of dialogue in a book I'm reading, from a character who has old-fashioned speech patterns:

できる限りの鶏肉を用意せい…

I assume this せい is some form of the verb する, though I'm not even sure if it's a regional dialect or some remnant of classical Japanese. I can find plenty of examples of the same usage on Google, but no actual explanation or grammar notes for it in any of my usual go-to sites and reference books.

Any ideas?

tansui
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1 Answers1

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Verb する has two imperative forms (命令形) with the same meaning: しろ and せよ. せい is an old-fashioned sound variation of the latter form.

Tsuyoshi Ito
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  • Thank you! Sometimes the answer stares at me right in the face, and yet it still eludes me... – tansui Jan 13 '13 at 17:52