I think you guys are unclear on the actual grammar at work here. Don't worry about it, I sometimes teach Japanese and most students, even some intermediate and advanced students, don't really understand what's going on linguistically in this situation.
English uses the verb "to be" for both "existence be" (i.e. "there is a bag," meaning that a bag exists) and "equals be," also know as the copula, (i.e. "the bag is brown," meaning that the bag = brown).
In Japanese they use two different verbs for these, respectively "ある" for "existence be" ("いる" for animate objects, another distinction English doesn't make) and "である” for the copula. So the above examples are thus ”かばんがある” and ”かばんが茶色である” (or "かばんが茶色です,” as most beginning Japanese students will be most used to seeing it. "である” becomes "です" in less formal situations, and ”だ" in casual situations).
Historically, these verbs looked and conjugated more differently than they do now (they used to be ”あり” and ”なり,” "あらぬ” and "ならぬ" when conjugated in the negative, very obviously different verbs), but over time they have morphed into what we see today.
Both linguistically (as they are used and conjugated and historically derived) and in the way in which everyday Japanese speakers think about them, ”である" is definitely not just "ある" with a particle slapped onto the beginning, and thus by extension ”ではない" is not just "ない" with particles.
In casual speech particles can, and will, be dropped as the speaker sees fit. But the ”では” or ”じゃ" at the beginning of ”じゃない” never ever will, because it fundamentally changes the meaning.
They are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT VERBS. I'm seriously not overstating this.
For a really good, more in depth explanation of this, check out "Making Sense of Japanese" by Jay Rubin (the translator of most of Haruki Murakami's books for the American market).
I think you guys are unclear
I think you guys are unclear on the actual grammar at work here. Don't worry about it, I sometimes teach Japanese and most students, even some intermediate and advanced students, don't really understand what's going on linguistically in this situation.
English uses the verb "to be" for both "existence be" (i.e. "there is a bag," meaning that a bag exists) and "equals be," also know as the copula, (i.e. "the bag is brown," meaning that the bag = brown).
In Japanese they use two different verbs for these, respectively "ある" for "existence be" ("いる" for animate objects, another distinction English doesn't make) and "である” for the copula. So the above examples are thus ”かばんがある” and ”かばんが茶色である” (or "かばんが茶色です,” as most beginning Japanese students will be most used to seeing it. "である” becomes "です" in less formal situations, and ”だ" in casual situations).
Historically, these verbs looked and conjugated more differently than they do now (they used to be ”あり” and ”なり,” "あらぬ” and "ならぬ" when conjugated in the negative, very obviously different verbs), but over time they have morphed into what we see today.
Both linguistically (as they are used and conjugated and historically derived) and in the way in which everyday Japanese speakers think about them, ”である" is definitely not just "ある" with a particle slapped onto the beginning, and thus by extension ”ではない" is not just "ない" with particles.
In casual speech particles can, and will, be dropped as the speaker sees fit. But the ”では” or ”じゃ" at the beginning of ”じゃない” never ever will, because it fundamentally changes the meaning.
They are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT VERBS. I'm seriously not overstating this.
For a really good, more in depth explanation of this, check out "Making Sense of Japanese" by Jay Rubin (the translator of most of Haruki Murakami's books for the American market).