69588
What is the difference in nuance between 完成に努{つと}めるand 完成に努{つとむ}むる? I heard
努むる{つとむむる} and it threw me as I had never heard it before.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-07-19T10:21:54.280
69583
2019-07-19T17:54:22.770
2019-07-19T12:01:48.460
-1
12108
question
nuances classical-japanese
努める and 努むる nuance differences
If you have context, that would be most appreciated. つとむ(む)る could reflect a
specific Okinawan form, or it might be a remnant of the earlier つとむる form as
part of the regular shift in the 下【しも】二【に】段【だん】活【かつ】用【よう】 pattern to the
modern 下【しも】一【いち】段【だん】活【かつ】用【よう】 pattern, possibly as a dialectal remnant, or
as a deliberate archaism.

## What we call "Okinawan"

For Okinawa proper (not the other islands like Amami or Yonaguni, about which
I know very little), I've learned that there are two different language
varieties called "Okinawan" in English: Okinawan as the modern form of the
ancient language brought to the island by initial settlers, which appears to
be dying out; and Okinawan as the local dialectal variant of mainland
Japanese. I've also learned that the two are quite different, with the
dialectal variant apparently much easier to learn for speakers of the mainland
standard. See also the Wikipedia articles for [Okinawan
language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okinawan_language) and [Okinawan
Japanese](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okinawan_Japanese) (the dialect based
on mainland Japanese). For purposes of this thread, I use the term "Okinawan"
to refer to the distinct language, and "dialect" to refer to the dialect based
on mainland Japanese.

## Possible Okinawan term

From what I've been able to find in materials provided by the [国立国語研究所
(National Institute of Japanese Language and
Linguistics)](https://mmsrv.ninjal.ac.jp/okinawago/), the Okinawan cognate to
mainland Japanese _tsutomeru_ is listed as _CitumijuN_ , where the _C_
represents the [voiceless palatal
fricative](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_palatal_fricative), as
heard in the "H" of mainland Japanese ひと, _j_ represents the [palatal
approximant](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palatal_approximant), as heard in
the "Y" of English _yet_ , and _N_ represents the moraic nasal spelled ん in
mainland kana usage. Depending on the audio quality, I can imagine that this
might sound a bit like つとむむる.

## Possible archaism or dialectal remnant

If the doubled-む is a mistake (perhaps a mis-hearing, or a stutter, or bad
audio, etc.), then the verb form in question might be つとむる. This means the
same thing as modern つとめる, but depending on the speaker it could have
dialectal overtones, and if this was a deliberate shift (where they usually
use つとめる in everyday life but used つとむる here as an intentional deviation from
normal use) it might be "old-timey", poetic, formal, or just plain archaic.

### The shift in conjugated forms for modern つとめる

The 下【しも】二【に】段【だん】 to 下【しも】一【いち】段【だん】 shift for this verb つとめる started from
old つとむ as the terminal form (終【しゅう】止【し】形【けい】). This merged with つとむる,
originally the attributive / adnominal form (連【れん】体【たい】形【けい】), some time
around the Ashikaga or Muromachi periods. Then some time since 1603, the first
//-u-// in the //-uru// terminal ending unified with the //-e-// of the
incomplete (未【み】然【ぜん】形【けい】), continuative (連【れん】用【よう】形【けい】), and imperative
(命【めい】令【れい】形【けい】) forms, giving us modern つとめる.

If you can read Japanese, see also
[https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/下二段活用](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%8B%E4%BA%8C%E6%AE%B5%E6%B4%BB%E7%94%A8)
and
[https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/下一段活用](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%8B%E4%B8%80%E6%AE%B5%E6%B4%BB%E7%94%A8).
See also [the entry for _tsutomuru_ in the 1603 _Nippo Jisho_ Japanese-
Portuguese
dictionary](https://books.google.com/books?id=TFJAAQAAMAAJ&dq=%22eta%22&pg=PP503#v=onepage&q=%22eta%22&f=false0).
Look for the yellow highlighting. The entry headline is:

> Tçutome, uru, eta.

All content uses Portuguese spellings from 1603, where **tçu** equates to
modern romaji **tsu** , **x** equates to modern romaji **sh** , etc. Also,
this dictionary's entries for verbs give the continuative form first, followed
by the terminal / attributive, and then the past tense. So this headline can
be interpreted as:

> つとめ（連用形）、つとむる（終止形・連体形）、つとめた（過去形）

## Conclusion

Without more context, we can't really say for sure. The above should give you
a good background as a starting point.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-07-19T17:54:22.770
69588
2019-07-19T17:54:22.770
5229
69583
answer