:Sokuon

In both hiragana and katakana, the {{Transliteration|ja|sokuon}} appears as a {{Transliteration|ja|tsu}} reduced in size:

The main use of the {{Transliteration|ja|sokuon}} is to mark a geminate consonant, which is represented in most romanization systems by the doubling of the consonant, except that Hepburn romanization writes a geminate ch as tch. It denotes the gemination of the initial consonant of the symbol that follows it.

Examples:

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| Pocky, a Japanese snack food, is written in kana as {{lang|ja|ポッキー}}, which is

: {{nihongo krt||ポ|po}}

: {{nihongo krt||ッ||{{Transliteration|ja|sokuon}}}}

: {{nihongo krt||キ|ki}}

: {{nihongo krt||ー||{{Transliteration|ja|chōonpu}}}}

In rōmaji, this is written pokkī, with the {{Transliteration|ja|sokuon}} represented by the doubled k consonant.

| {{nihongo krt||待って|matte}}, the te form of the verb {{nihongo krt|"wait"|待つ|matsu}}, is composed of:

: {{nihongo krt||待|ma||(kanji)}}

: {{nihongo krt||っ||{{Transliteration|ja|sokuon}}}}

: {{nihongo krt||て|te}}

In the rōmaji rendering, matte, the {{Transliteration|ja|sokuon}} is represented by the doubling of the t consonant.

| {{nihongo krt||こっち|kotchi}}, meaning "here", is composed of:

: {{nihongo krt||こ|ko}}

: {{nihongo krt||っ||{{Transliteration|ja|sokuon}}}}

: {{nihongo krt||ち|chi}}

In Hepburn romanization, kotchi, the {{Transliteration|ja|sokuon}} is represented by the t consonant, even though the following consonant is ch. This is because rōmaji ch actually represents {{IPA|[t͡ɕ]}} (voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate), and the sokuon before it doubles the {{IPA|[t]}} sound. The Kunrei-shiki and Nihon-shiki romanization systems write this syllable as ti (and its geminate version as tti) so the exception does not arise.

}}

The sokuon never appears at the beginning of a word or before a vowel (a, i, u, e, or o), and rarely appears before a syllable that begins with the consonants n, m, r, w, or y. (In words and loanwords that require geminating these consonants, {{nihongo krt||ン|n}}, {{nihongo krt||ム|mu}}, {{nihongo krt||ル|ru}}, {{nihongo krt||ウ|u}}, and {{nihongo krt||イ|i}} are usually used, respectively, instead of the sokuon.) In addition, it does not appear before voiced consonants (g, z, d, or b), or before h, except in loanwords, or distorted speech, or dialects. However, uncommon exceptions exist for stylistic reasons: For example, the Japanese name of the Pokémon species Cramorant is {{lang|ja|ウッウ}}, pronounced {{IPA|/uʔu/}}.The pronunciation is verifiable here: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzEqIbJFD0Y&t=23m48s Nintendo Direct (September 5, 2019; 23 min 48 s)]. Retrieved 2019-09-05.

The sokuon is also used at the end of a sentence, to indicate a glottal stop (IPA {{IPA|[ʔ]}}, a sharp or cut-off articulation),{{cite web|url=http://www.sljfaq.org/afaq/small-tsu.html|title=What is that small tsu at the end of a sentence?|publisher=sljfaq.org|access-date=2019-06-28}} which may indicate angry or surprised speech. This pronunciation is also used for exceptions mentioned before (e.g., a sokuon before a vowel kana). There is no standard way of romanizing the sokuon that is at the end of a sentence. In English writing,{{clarify|reason=Does this mean romaji, or does it mean an English translation?|date=August 2014}} this is often rendered as an em dash. Other conventions are to render it as t or as an apostrophe.

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, the sokuon is transcribed with either a colon-like length mark or a doubled consonant:

• {{nihongo3|"come"|来て|kite}}{{snd}}{{IPA|/kite/}}
• {{nihongo3|"postage stamp"|切手|kitte}}{{snd}}{{IPA|/kitːe/}} or {{IPA|/kitte/}}
• {{nihongo3|"clams"|あさり|asari}}{{snd}}{{IPA|/asari/}}
• {{nihongo3|"easily"|あっさり|assari}}{{snd}}{{IPA|/asːari/}} or {{IPA|/assari/}}

The sokuon represents a mora, thus for example the word {{nihongo3|Japan|日本|Nippon}} consists of only two syllables, but four morae: ni-p-po-n.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Apo3BAAAQBAJ|title=Motor Speech Disorders: A Cross-Language Perspective|publisher=Multilingual Matters|author=Nick Miller, Anja Lowit|isbn=978-1-78309-232-1|year=2014|page=223}}

Major Japanese dictionaries list {{nihongo||促声|sokusei|{{lit|rushed voice}}}}, as a synonym for {{nihongo|sokuon|促音|4={{lit|rushed sound}}}}.Nihon Kokugo DaijitenDaijirinDaijisen This suggests an origin in Middle Chinese phonology, where sokusei ({{CJKV|t=促聲}}), also known as {{nihongo||入聲|nisshō, nissei|literally "entering voice"}}, referred to a checked tone, or a syllable that ends in an unreleased plosive (see 促聲). 促聲 contrasts with 舒聲 (literally "leisurely voice") which is a syllable that ends in a vowel, semivowel, or nasal (see 舒聲).

The Meiji-era linguist Ōshima Masatake used the terms sokuon ("plosive") and hatsuon ("nasal") to describe ending consonants in Chinese (which he called {{nihongo||支那語|Shinago}}, an outdated term used from the Edo period until after World War II). These sounds were classified as {{nihongo|"labial"|唇內|shinnai}}, {{nihongo|"lingual"|舌內|zetsunai}} and {{nihongo|"guttural"|喉內|kōnai}}. Sokuon, in particular, were classified as follows: {{IPA|[p̚]}} is the {{nihongo|"labial plosive"|唇內促音}}, {{IPA|[t̚]}} is the {{nihongo|"lingual plosive"|舌內促音}}, and {{IPA|[k̚]}} is the {{nihongo|"guttural plosive"|喉內促音}}.{{cite book|title=音韻漫錄|date=July 1897|last=Ōshima|first=Masatake|chapter=撥音と促音|language=Japanese|pages=45–47|url=https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/992984/1/29}} Another of Ōshima's descriptions even more explicitly related the terms sokuon and hatsuon to the four tones of Middle Chinese.{{cite journal|issue=21|journal=東京獨立雜誌|language=Japanese|date=5 February 1899|title=古今入聲の比較|page=13|last=Ōshima|first=Masatake|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HU9DAQAAIAAJ}}

Modern Japanese sokuon arose, in no small part, from consonant assimilation that occurred when an Early Middle Japanese approximation of a Chinese sokuon, such as pu (labial), t(i) (lingual) or ki/ku (guttural), was followed by an obstruent (plosive or fricative).{{cite book|last=Frellesvig|first=Bjarke|title=A History of the Japanese Language|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2010|chapter=Part II: Early Middle Japanese}}

In addition to Japanese, sokuon is used in Okinawan katakana orthographies to represent glottal or ejective consonants. Ainu katakana uses a small {{lang|ain|ッ}} both for a final t-sound and to represent a sokuon (there is no ambiguity however, as gemination is allophonic with syllable-final t).

There are several methods of entering the sokuon using a computer or word-processor, such as xtu, ltu, ltsu, etc. Some systems, such as Kotoeri for macOS and the Microsoft IME, generate a sokuon if an applicable consonant letter is typed twice; for example tta generates {{lang|ja|った}}.

Braille:

{{Braille cell|type=image|sokuon|lang=japanese}}

• Computer encodings

{{charmap

|3063|name1=Hiragana Letter Small Tu

|30C3|name2=Katakana Letter Small Tu

|FF6F|name3=Halfwidth Katakana Letter Small Tu

|IncludeGB=1

|map1=Shift JIS{{cite web |url=https://www.unicode.org/Public/MAPPINGS/OBSOLETE/EASTASIA/JIS/SHIFTJIS.TXT |title=Shift-JIS to Unicode |author=Unicode Consortium |author-link=Unicode Consortium |date=2015-12-02 |orig-date=1994-03-08}}|map1char1=82 C1|map1char2=83 62|map1char3=AF

|map2=EUC-JP{{cite web |url=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/unicode-org/icu/master/icu4c/source/data/mappings/euc-jp-2007.ucm |title=EUC-JP-2007 |author1=Unicode Consortium |author-link1=Unicode Consortium |author2=IBM |author-link2=IBM |work=International Components for Unicode}}|map2char1=A4 C3|map2char2=A5 C3|map2char3=8E AF

|map3=EUC-KR{{cite web |url=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/unicode-org/icu/master/icu4c/source/data/mappings/ibm-970_P110_P110-2006_U2.ucm |title=IBM-970 |author1=Unicode Consortium |author-link1=Unicode Consortium |author2=IBM |author-link2=IBM |work=International Components for Unicode}} / UHC{{cite web |url=https://www.unicode.org/Public/MAPPINGS/VENDORS/MICSFT/WINDOWS/CP949.TXT |title=cp949 to Unicode table |last=Steele |first=Shawn |publisher=Microsoft / Unicode Consortium |date=2000}}|map3char1=AA C3|map3char2=AB C3

|map4=Big5 (non-ETEN kana){{cite web |url=https://www.unicode.org/Public/MAPPINGS/OBSOLETE/EASTASIA/OTHER/BIG5.TXT |title=BIG5 to Unicode table (complete) |author=Unicode Consortium |author-link=Unicode Consortium |date=2015-12-02 |orig-date=1994-02-11}}|map4char1=C6 C7|map4char2=C7 5B

|map5=Big5 (ETEN / HKSCS){{cite web |url=https://encoding.spec.whatwg.org/big5.html |title=big5 |work=Encoding Standard |publisher=WHATWG |last=van Kesteren |first=Anne |author-link=Anne van Kesteren}}|map5char1=C7 4A|map5char2=C7 BF

}}

• Japanese phonology gives a detailed description of the sound system of Japanese.
• Gemination
• Chōonpu

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book|title=Easy hiragana: first steps to reading and writing basic Japanese|publisher=Passport Books|year=1989|author=Fujihiko Kaneda, Rika Samidori|pages=74−78}}

{{Wiktionary|促音|っ|ッ}}

Category:Kana

Category:Japanese phonology

Category:Japanese writing system terms