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I am trying to understand the lyrics to [Matsumoto Bon
Bon](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaQQqHgKMnQ). Particularly the line in
bold:

> 松本 ぼん ぼん
>
> 城のまち
>
> 山にみどりの 風吹けば
>
> **杉っぱ 青っぱ 青山さまが**
>
> 堀のむこうから 町のつじ
>
> どっこい じんじょ

I tried to look for
[青っぱ](http://tangorin.com/general/%E9%9D%92%E3%81%A3%E3%81%B1) but the only
result is for あおっぱな, which is:

> green snot (hanging from a child's nose, etc.)

I did not find 杉っぱ in the dictionary either.

Is there a "っぱ" suffix that has some well defined meaning in Japanese?
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2018-07-23T20:26:37.910
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question
grammar meaning song-lyrics suffixes
Is there a っぱ suffix? If so, what does it mean?
杉っぱ means 杉【すぎ】の葉【は】 "cedar leaves" and 青っぱ means 青葉【あおば】 "green (fresh)
leaves".

Of course 葉っぱ [is a word in
itself](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/9420/1628). My guess would be
that it is more a geminated version of 葉【は】 than it is a borrowing of っぱ in
葉っぱ, but it may be a combination of both! In any case, っぱ is _not_ a
productive suffix meaning "leaf of ..." and you can probably think of 杉っぱ and
青っぱ as an instance of poetic license.
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Generally, "っぱ" is a euphonic change in the pronunciation of a Japanese word
from "は" meaning "のは" or "は of" where は could be "葉 _leaf_ ", "歯 _tooth_ ", "派
_party/faction/school/sect/group_ ", "刃 _cutting edge/blade_ ", "波 _wave_ "
and etc.

菜{な}っ葉{ぱ}、味噌{みそ}っ歯{ぱ}、反{そ}っ歯{ぱ}、出{で}っ歯{ぱ} are often used with the usage
written above including 青{あお}っぱ, 葉{は}っぱ and 杉{すぎ}っぱ.

In addition to the above general explanation, I'll provide supplementary
explanation for the two examples: 葉っぱ and 杉っぱ.

As for 葉っぱ, it means "葉 _leaf_ " and we use 葉っぱ often instead of 葉, and
according to the above general explanation, 葉っぱ could be written as 葉っ葉. 葉っ葉
is a strange notation, so we write it as 葉っぱ not as 葉っ葉.  
葉 and 歯 are both very common words having the same and simple pronunciation.  
The reason we use 葉っぱ often instead of 葉 is that we would like to distinguish
葉 from 歯.

As for 杉っぱ, it is probably "杉の葉 _cedar leaves_ " that ordinary Japanese can
imagine, but we actually do not see the expression much. The reason is that "杉
_cedar_ " is famous and anyone can understand, but cedar leaves are hard to
imagine which part of cedar is actually pointed with the expression of cedar
leaves. Things that are difficult to imagine do not have common names, so I
think that the expression 杉っぱ or 杉の葉 is not used much.
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answer