Sokuon - Sokuon

A sound that is expressed as "っ" in modern writing. It is pronounced before the stop consonants k, t, and p, or the fricative s, and is sustained for one beat while maintaining the pronunciation. It is also called a "tsumaru sound." Phonetically, it is not a single type of sound, but it is recognized as a single phoneme in the Japanese consciousness (and also in phonology). In Japanese words, it appears in the tsu-kon (gakkou soku) consonant (totte ← torite), emphatic forms (yappari ← yahari, tokku (ni) ← hurri (toku)), and onomatopoeic and mimetic words (gokkun, nikkori), and in Chinese words when a character that begins with a voiceless sound (originally ending with k, t, or p) is followed by a character that begins with a voiceless sound (gakkou, kassen). It seems that it was not recognized as an official sound in the past, and until the mid-Heian period, it was often left unwritten (Ohate [End]), and even after that, it was written in an inconsistent way, such as with the kana mu (Watamute [Way]), tsu, or the symbol ∨ (Noho∨te [Rise]), but by the end of the Heian period, the writing with "tsu" and "tsu" had become almost established. It was after World War II that it became common to write "っ" and "っ" in small letters.

[Yasuda Naomichi]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

現代の表記法で「っ」で表される音。閉鎖音のk、t、pや摩擦音sの前で、その発音の構えをしたまま一拍分持続するもので、「つまる音」ともいう。音声学的には1種類の音ではないが、日本人の意識では（また音韻論的にも）一つの音韻と認められる。和語では促音便（トッテ←取リテ）、強調形（ヤッパリ←ヤハリ、トック（ニ）←疾(ト)ク）や擬声語・擬態語（ゴックン、ニッコリ）に現れ、漢語では入声(にっしょう)（元来k、t、pで終わる）の字の次に無声音で始まる字が続く場合（学校、合戦）に現れる。古くは正式の音として認められていなかったようで、平安時代中期までは無表記の場合（ヲハテ〔終〕）が多く、その後も仮名のム（ワタムテ〔渡〕）、ツや記号∨（ノホ∨テ〔昇〕）で表すなど、表記は一定しなかったが、平安末期には「ツ」「つ」による表記がほぼ定着した。なお「っ」「ッ」と小さく書くのが一般化したのは第二次世界大戦後のことである。

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