48958
Inspired by <https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/38733/3295>

Some examples [from
Wiktionary](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E7%9C%9F#Readings):

> 真っ暗 (makkura, "total darkness")  
>  真っ向 (makkō, "directly opposite", "right in front")  
>  真っ黒 (makkuro, "pitch black)  
>  真っ最中 (massaichū, "infull swing, in the midst")  
>  真っ青 (massao, "deep blue")  
>  真っ赤 (makka, "bright red")  
>  真っ先  
>  真っ直ぐ  
>  真っ二つ  
>  真っ白

Also possibly related: `真ん丸`, `真ん中`.

The usual rules for gemination don't seem to apply: `真{ま}` doesn't end in `つ`
or `く`, so where does っ come from?

[@user4092](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/users/4092/user4092) puts
forward this theory in a comment:

> As for 真っ白, some claim that it derives from prefix "ma" with reduplicated
> adjectives, which is shared with Filipino or Melanesian languages. This
> feature is well reserved in "ma aka aka" → まっかっか.

To be honest I'm somewhat skeptical of this.

For now my pet theory is that it's related to the reading まこと, but is there a
commonly accepted explanation?
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2017-06-30T18:43:37.573
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question
kanji readings compounds gemination
Why does gemination happen in many 真 compounds?
(Seems like we're not getting anything more specific, so I'll format my
comments as an answer for ease of future reference.)

The electronic edition of the _Kokugo Dajiten_ has it like this:

> 接頭語「ま」の下に促音の挿入された形,

So the standard view isn't that it was _makoto_ > _maQ-_ ; but rather a simple
_ma-_ , to which _-Q-_ was later tacked on. And indeed, of the words you've
cited, most of them have non-geminated attestation in historical documents;
though that, in itself, isn't decisive, since gemination wasn't always written
down consistently. Still, I think the standard analysis is more likely true
than not.

Why? If you consider some prefixes ending with _-ki/-ku_ that create
gemination, you'll find these are often _on’yomi_ , i.e. Chinese loans, like
悪- _aku-_ in 悪口 _akkō, akku_ or 石 _seki-_ in 石鹸 _sekken_. But these trace
straightforwardly to Middle Chinese readings ending in consonants, such as *
_ʔak_ and * _dźak_ in this example (compare the modern Cantonese readings:
_ok_ , _sek_ ). We know these loans retained their final consonants even in
Japanese for a good while. It's natural that a syllable-final consonant would
coalesce into a geminated one

What that has to do with anything? Well, _ma-_ is a native Japanese prefix,
seen in the 8th-century _Man'yōshū_ in expressions like _ma-kanasimi_ "truly
sad", or 旅とへど真旅になりぬ "I said I'd set out on a [little] journey, but—lo and
behold!—now it has become a real [long] one." Linguists have many reasons to
believe that Old Japanese had no gemination, so _ma-_ was a perfectly
cromulent prefix by itself, predating the introduction of geminated consonants
into the language. In fact, it's very likely that _makoto_ itself is just
_ma+koto_ 真事/真言, true things/true words (again as per _Daijiten_ ).

Since we had a native Japanese _ma-_ rather than a Chinese _mak-_ , there
seems to be no reason for it to trigger gemination. True, the Japanese _onbin_
changes also triggered gemination, like _torite_ → _totte_ ; but not with [k],
since the _onbin_ form of _kakite_ resulted in _kaite_ instead. Then whence
the _-Q-_ in _maQ-_? Consider that both historically and synchronically, _Q_
is added to create emphasis:

  * _matashi_ , _mataku_ (historical form) → _mattaku_ (modern form) 
    * → まっっったく (tongue-in-cheek superemphasis in manga or the Internet, etc.)
  * _yohodo_ → _yoppodo_ (both forms still coexist)
  * _mina_ → _minna_ (also works with nasals)

Consider also that there are several other emphatic prefixes with a _-Q-_ (取っ,
引っ, 打っ, 押っ as in 押っ死ぬ、押っ放り出す…), and also the use of _Q_ in interjections like
"こわっ!"

Given the meaning of 真 as "true, truly, for real", it makes sense for it to
receive emphatic gemination, which in time lexicalized into forms like 真っ黒,
etc. We can predict from this that, if a word has a 真 prefix but didn't get an
emphatic っ fossilized into its lexical entry, it could still get a っ for extra
discursive emphasis; and in fact, forms like
[まっこと](https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&vertical=default&q=%22%E3%81%BE%E3%81%A3%E3%81%93%E3%81%A8%22&src=typd)
or
[真ん夏](https://twitter.com/search?q=%22%E7%9C%9F%E3%82%93%E5%A4%8F%22&src=typd)
are easy enough to find online.
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answer