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Can ぞ be the short form of こそ? Here below a sentence example:

> これぞあたしの本だ！！

[Here](http://ejje.weblio.jp/content/%E3%81%93%E3%82%8C%E3%81%9E) I found that
これぞ = this (emphatic), but I'm curious to know if that _zo_ came from _koso_
or not. Thk U in advance!
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2017-09-14T13:19:30.037
53248
2017-09-14T16:46:53.253
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question
expressions
ぞ is the short form of こそ?
If ぞ and こそ are etymologically related to one another, it will have been a
long time ago. Both particles have a long history in the Japanese language and
were used commonly in Classical Japanese. However, it seems more likely that
こそ is derived from ぞ rather than the other way around.

In Classical Japanese, the two particles actually functioned differently on a
grammatical level - Classical Japanese had a feature called 係り{かかり}結び{むすび}, in
which certain particles caused the following verb to take a different form,
and the forms used were different for ぞ (which used the 連用形{れんようけい}) and こそ
(which used the 已然形{いぜんけい}). So they were clearly quite distinct particles as
long ago as Classical Japanese.

That said, ぞ was apparently pronounced as そ earlier in the language's history
(the [Wikipedia article for
係り結び](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%BF%82%E3%82%8A%E7%B5%90%E3%81%B3)
mentions that it was そ in the 上代{じょうだい} period), so it's not unlikely that the
two words are related if you go back far enough. The [Wiktionary entry for the
classical こそ](https://ja.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E3%81%93%E3%81%9D) mentions that
one theory is that こそ comes from ぞ combined with the classical pronoun こ,
which would make こそ originally equivalent to the whole expression これぞ itself!
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2017-09-14T14:25:25.810
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answer
This ぞ is an archaic Japanese particle which works similarly to こそ in modern
Japanese. In modern Japanese, これぞ is not common any more, but `これぞＸ（だ）！` is
sometimes used like a catchphrase:

>   * これぞラーメン！ " _This_ is (true) ramen!"
>   * これぞアメリカだ！ " _This_ is America!"
>

Besides, これぞ is occasionally used to simulate old-fashioned, pompous and/or
[chūnibyo-
like](https://bangin.wordpress.com/2008/12/21/%E4%B8%AD%E4%BA%8C%E7%97%85chunibyo/)
way of speaking, mainly in fiction. 「これぞあたしの本だ！！」 is not incorrect, but sounds
a little funny because the これぞ part is unnaturally archaic.

Something like this would be fine in a fantasy work (imagine an old wizard
with long beard saying this):

> これぞ吾輩が長年探し求め[し](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/14498/5010)魔道書！！

No one speak like this in reality, though.
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2017-09-14T14:37:30.033
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answer