The small tsu

[jgdeschenes5595]

こんにちは、
My question is not related directly a lesson in particular, so I post it here.
It is about the small tsu, not about its role in prononciation, but it is more about its origin… its relation with the regular tsu.
For example, the kanji 一（いち）has the following onyomi : イチ and イツ.
In all the reference sites (as on-line dictionaries), イツ is always written with a regular tsu. However, when used in a word, it becomes a small tsu, like in いっぷん（一分）or いっしょに（一緒に）.
Is there a reason why the tsu was chosen instead of any other character to indicate what seems to be called a glottal stop (one silent beat) ?
どうぞよろしく、
デシェヌ

[thegooseking]

デシェヌさん、

I'm not certain of the reason for using a 'tsu', but what I can tell you is that the sound it makes is phonetically called an obstruent geminate, and the character is called by its Japanese name of sokuon.

All I've been able to find about its origin is that it may have had something to do with the introduction of Chinese words into Japanese, and how that affected pronunciation, but I haven't yet been able to find anything more specific than that. As to why a 'tsu' character was chosen, I certainly don't know. I have a problem with that theory, too, in that I'm fairly sure Chinese words were introduced into Japanese long before the sokuon was, but it's the only theory I've been able to find.

There are some knowns in the history of Japanese language, but sadly a lot of it is lost, and we can only speculate.

小狼

[jgdeschenes5595]

小狼さん、
Very interesting even though it is a matter of speculation in the history of Japanese language.
Thank you very much,
デシェヌ

[community.japanese]

デシュヌさん、小狼さん、

どうもありがとうございました。
おもしろいですね。

Yuki　由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com