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More from the JLPT1 vocabulary list.

I've been presented with 重んじる and 重んずる, both given as transitives and with the
meaning _to prize, to honour, to esteem_.

Is there a difference in nuance between the two? Are they interchangeable?

A bunch of examples are given for 重んじる but not 重んずる. Is the latter outdated?

Lastly I've seen more of these pairs (which I don't recall at the moment). Is
there a general rule to be said about these verb endings?

I apologize for the many questions, let me know if it needs a split.

よろしくお願いします。
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2016-07-03T07:41:00.197
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usage nuances verbs etymology
On 重んじる and 重んずる
Interchangeable. Just a minor difference in pronunciation. Perhaps it's an
[音便]{おんびん} thing
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> Is there a difference in nuance between the two? Are they interchangeable?

The only noteworthy difference between 「～～じる」 and 「～～ずる」 is that the former
sounds "lighter", "less literary", "less formal", etc. than the latter.

There is no difference in meaning between the two forms. Thus, for the pure
purpose of maintaining the meaning, one could say that the two are
interchangeable.

**IMPORTANT** : Language, however, is never very simple and therefore, if you
changed one word in a sentence, you might need to change some others as well
to retain the level of formality, literary feel, etc. of the original
sentence.

> Is the latter outdated?

No, hardly not. You will encounter the 「～～ずる」 form quite often in more serious
and/or formal kinds of writings/speeches.

It is just not used very often on the street, so to speak.

> Lastly I've seen more of these pairs (which I don't recall at the moment).
> Is there a general rule to be said about these verb endings?

What does exist is more a tendency than a rule; In fact, there is no such
rule. 「～～ずる」 tends to be used more often in social sciences than in natural
sciences. As a Japanese-speaker, if I were asked where I would see/hear 「～～ずる」
most often, I would tend to think of proverbs, philosophical sayings, or for a
lack of word, "more profound statements" in general.
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It's worth noting that _‑ zuru_ forms are historically older than the _‑ jiru_
forms. This might account for the sense l'électeur notes, that the _‑ jiru_
forms come across as _"lighter", "less literary", "less formal", etc._

### How the forms developed

Historically, there are many terms that started out as compounds, where a noun
or a borrowing from Chinese (in this case, a single-character kanji term read
with the _on'yomi_ ) was appended with す as the generic suffix used to make
something a verb. (This す was also the origin of modern verb する "to do".)
These (almost) all became the modern verbs ending in _‑ jiru_.

  * At first, it was simply `[WORD]` + す -- 重{おも}み + す, or 信{しん} + す.
  * Over time, in those words where this す came right after a voiced mora (usually み or ん), the す often became voiced too, turning into ず. Any み before the ず also often eroded into just ん. 重みず → 重んず, 信ず. (It's interesting to note that the MS IME offers up the correct kanji spellings for conversion of these terms ending in ‑んず.)

  * Another historical development was the addition of the る on the end, to give us 重んずる and 信ずる.

    * This was a regular process that occurred with all of the verbs called "type 2" verbs in English-language instructional materials, like 食{た}べる or 感{かん}じる or even 寝{ね}る, as well as the "type 3" verbs 来{く}る and する. Remember that the ず on the end of 重んず and 信ず counts as する here.
    * The "type 2" verbs all had older forms that ended in _-u_ in the terminal (sentence-final) form, and that ended in _-i_ or _-e_ in the negative, conjunctive ( _‑ masu_ stem), and imperative forms. The "type 3" verbs live up to their name as "irregular". :)
    * For our sample "type 2" and "type 3" verbs above, _taberu_ came from _tabu_ , _kanjiru_ came from _kanzu_ , _neru_ came from _nu_ , _kuru_ came from _ku_ , and _suru_ came from _su_.
    * Probably to help differentiate the terminal forms from other verbs or other senses (is _uku_ 浮く "to float", or 受く "to receive"? is _iku_ 行く "to go", or 生く "to live"? is _tsuku_ intransitive or transitive? etc.), the "type 2" verbs were more commonly used in the _‑ masu_ stem form + る. Meanwhile, the irregulars just got る stuck on the end, probably also to make them more clearly distinguishable when speaking. This informal spoken practice then gradually influenced formal writing, producing the modern forms.
  * Finally, the ‑ずる on the end followed the same general pattern that "type 2" verbs went through previously, and changed from ‑ずる to ‑じる. 
    * This process is somewhat incomplete, as the ‑ずる forms have not vanished from the modern language.

So in modern Japanese, both 重んずる / 信ずる and 重んじる / 信じる are recognized as
grammatically valid forms. The ‑ずる forms are older, and may thus lend a more
formal, weighty, or traditional feel, while the ‑じる forms are the most common
in regular speech, and thus may come across as more informal, prosaic, or
everyday.
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