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Are there any rules or guidelines as to when to pronounce 行く as いく or ゆく?

I looked it up on
[jisho.org](http://jisho.org/words?jap=%E8%A1%8C%E3%81%8F&eng=&dict=edict),
and the two pronunciations have the exact same definition. I tend to hear ゆく
more often in songs, but that is just anecdotal.
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2013-07-28T03:08:54.277
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question
pronunciation
When is 行く pronounced as いく, and when is it ゆく?
The explanation in
[デジタル大辞泉](http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/jn/225173/meaning/m0u/) is:

>
> 「いく」の語形も上代からみられ、平安時代以降は「ゆく」と併用される。「ゆく」「いく」はほとんど意味は同じであるが、古くは「ゆく」のほうがより広く使われ、特に訓点資料・和歌（「生く」との掛け詞の場合を除き）では、ほとんどすべてが「ゆく」である。現在では「ゆく」に比べて「いく」のほうが話し言葉的な感じをもち、したがって、「過ぎ行く」「散り行く」など、文章語的な語の場合には「ゆく」となるのが普通である。なお、「ゆきて」のイ音便形「ゆいて」も用いられたが、現在は一般的でなく、促音便形は「ゆく」のほうは用いられず、「いく」を用いて「いって」「いった」となる。

My translation / synopsis is as follows:

いく has been seen from ancient times but from the Heian period both have been
in use. いく has almost exactly the same meaning as ゆく but in olden times, ゆく
was used more widely: Putting the use of double entendres and word play based
on 生く aside, then the use of 行く in Japanese poetry (waka/tanka) or symbolism
can almost always read as ゆく. As a result, when expressions such as
「過ぎ行く」「散り行く」 are used stylistically in written language they are normally read
as ゆく. However forms such as ゆきて have stopped being used in favour of forms
derived from いく such as いって and いった.
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answer
They both mean the same of course, and there is plenty of info you can find
explaining that ゆく is an older version. In addition, I have found that while
ゆく tends to be a somewhat casual version of いく. いく is _easier_ to pronounce
than ゆく. Also, FWIW, I think いく is used more often than ゆく in conversation.
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2014-12-20T15:52:23.513
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ゆく is both more formal and more poetic that いく, so you'll hear ゆく in public
announcements, song lyrics, formal letters. In every day life, いく is what
you'll hear.

These kinds of couplets are very common in Japanese, and you'll frequently
find near-synonyms like 参加する・来る / 逮捕【たいほ】する・捕【つか】まえる / 拝見【はいけん】する・見る /
消失【しょうしつ】する・消える or 包含【ほうがん】する・含める. The general trend behind all of this is
that Sino-Japanese words are usually more literary and formal than their
native counterparts. ゆく, as a mostly obsolete form of いく, a retains the sense
of a literary tradition, like most Sino-Japanese words, that for its
difficulty was prestigious in earlier Japanese history, and still carries a
degree of prestige today.

As you can see in Earthliŋ's comment, よい and いい are also good examples of this
principle.
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2014-12-24T09:40:38.520
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