Putting な after a plain verb turns it into negative imperative.
But I noticed that in spoken Japanese, putting な after conjunctive form (連用形) turns it into positive imperative. For example:
遊びに行きなよ。
Is this usage standard or colloquial? Also, it seems that it's usually used by elders towards younger people so does it have special nuances, for example maybe like patronizing?
Answer
By popular demand:
That's not the negative imperative particle. Rather, it's an abbreviation of なさい, probably via the elided form なはい or なあ. See here. It's colloquial and standard (meaning everyone understands what it means).
Your observation that it's a bit patronising is probably correct—notice that なさい has similar connotations—but I'm not a usage expert, so I'll let someone else answer that part of your question.
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