24790
My question is:

If 結婚 is written as 結{けっ}婚{こん} rather than 結{け}っ婚{こん}, why do we write 持{も}って
rather than 持{もっ}て?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-06-04T13:46:17.890
24788
2015-06-05T18:09:10.320
2015-06-05T18:09:10.320
9896
question
orthography okurigana
If 結婚 is written as 結{けっ}婚{こん} rather than 結{け}っ婚{こん}, why do we write 持{も}って rather than 持{もっ}て?
Because 結 don't have reading of け but けつ and 持て would be ambiguous if it's もって
or もて.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-06-04T14:23:07.730
24789
2015-06-04T14:23:07.730
4092
24788
answer
結婚 is a Chinese loanword; 持つ is native Japanese. In chinese loanwords,
sometimes final sounds like つ get contracted to っ〜, but because it's still
結{けつ}, the つ is still "part of" the reading. Often 2-kanji words are chinese
in origin.

In the case of 持って, the っ is a suffix to 持つ's root, 持. 持 on its own doesn't
have a つ sound in it. Same goes for 読む -> 読んで.

On the note of Japanese vs Chinese, you do actually get some words with っ for
2-character compounds that are Japanese in origin. An example is 引{ひ}っ越{こ}し,
moving house. This one again has it because 引く doesn't naturally contain つ is
the Kanji -- the kanji alone with its Japanese reading is ひ (though you would
never say it alone).
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-06-04T14:59:51.917
24790
2015-06-04T14:59:51.917
9185
24788
answer
Despite your confusion, you're actually asking two distinct questions
unrelated to each other.

  1. **Why 結{けっ}婚{こん} rather than 結{け}っ婚{こん}**

Because none of affixes involved in this case. Okurigana isn't for marking
sound changes. It only clarifies some kind of grammatical meaningful
differences caused by conjugation or derivation, or by homographic kun'yomi
words, that could be obscured solely in kanji. For extensive explanation on
okurigana, [refer to this
answer](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/21051/7810), but in this case,
結{けつ} + 婚{こん} → けっこん is but a regular pattern the kanji 結 transforms itself
(in fact, it's more like 結 _ket_ become _ket-u_ when no connectable sound
follows), nothing added and confused. It's just like we don't add any letter
when 春{はる} + 雨{あめ} becomes 春雨{はるさめ}, or don't change spelling in English e.g.
_electri **c**_ → _electri **c** ity_.

There are indeed some cases we do put っ in the middle of a word, for example,
when gemination (an infix!) is added for emphasis like 奇怪{きかい} "bizarre" →
奇{き}っ怪{かい} "most bizarre; outrageous", or the word inherently has っ like
江戸{えど} "Edo" + っ子{こ} "-ic boy/girl" → 江戸{えど}っ子{こ} "Tokyoite (born and bred)".

  2. **Why 持{も}って rather than 持{もっ}て**

In today's orthography, okurigana to verbs is started in the last syllable of
the stem, unless the stem only has one or less syllable long. e.g. _o.ku.r-_ →
送る, 送らない, 送って ( _okur-_ + _-te_ > _okut-te_ ) etc. / _si.ra.be-_ → 調べる, 調べない,
調べて etc. [The
standard](http://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/hakusho/nc/k19730618001/k19730618001.html)
_has many provisos **extending** the okurigana, but **reducing** the okurigana
is generally substandard_ except for a few exceptions.

Thus, the conjugated forms of the verb _mot-_ is written as 持つ for _mot-u_ and
持って for _mot-te_ (持て is imperative _mot-e_ ).

Confusingly, there's a word 以{もっ}て "by means of; with" which shares the same
etymology with 持つ, but normatively spelled without っ, because it's considered
to be a full-fledged adverb/postposition by its own.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-06-05T09:10:47.133
24816
2015-06-05T09:36:28.673
2017-04-13T12:43:44.157
-1
7810
24788
answer