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While playing a game, one of the characters said (the text is in English and the voice is in Japanese):

  • 君はずっと働きずめだったから、今日はもう寝な。

My conjecture is that the correct written form is 働きずめ, but is that correct? Is it 働きづめ or 働きずめ? Moreover, are there any other words constructed with that same suffix?

Elizabeth Middleford
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  • Relevant: https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/69516/why-is-katakana-not-pronounced-katagana/69519#69519 – Skye-AT Aug 30 '21 at 19:10

1 Answers1

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No, it's not correct.

When you break that down, it's 働{はたら}き+詰{つ}め. So, it must be with つ+濁点{だくてん}(゛) - づ.

The method is called 連濁{れんだく}. I'll leave the explain to wikipedia and question/answer that I linked in comment at OP.

There's much more like this one, such as:

  • 生{い}き辛{づら}い = 生{い}きる+辛{つら}い
  • 磯釣{いそづ}り = 磯{いそ}+釣{つ}り
  • 折{お}り鶴{づる} = 折{お}り+鶴{つる}
  • 寿司詰{すしづ}め = 寿司{すし}+詰{づ}め
Skye-AT
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    Okay, now I know it's spelled as 働きづめ, thanks. But 連濁 was not my point. What I asked would be, then, if there are any other words of the form V + 詰め. – Elizabeth Middleford Aug 30 '21 at 23:25
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    @ElizabethMiddleford The examples in [this link](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E8%A9%B0_%28%E3%81%A5%E3%82%81%29/#jn-148300) are all づめ. As a post-masu-stem suffix, 働きづめ should be the most common, but it can attach to a few other verbs. – naruto Aug 31 '21 at 00:43
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    「さしずめ」（差し詰め） may be special, being an established adverb, perhaps? – Chocolate Aug 31 '21 at 00:45
  • @Chocolate According to [goo](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E5%B7%AE%E8%A9%B0%E3%82%81/) ずめ/づめ they both are fine I think? Still, most of time we write that in hiragana, and I think I've never seen さしずめ written as さしづめ except dictionary/old article, so... – Skye-AT Aug 31 '21 at 01:15
  • According to [this](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%9B%9B%E3%81%A4%E4%BB%AE%E5%90%8D), the distinctions are ultimately fuzzy. 現代仮名遣いでは、複合語であるなどの語源意識が残っており、「ち」「つ」などから生じたことが明らかである場合に「ぢ」「づ」を用いることになっているが、語源意識が残っているかどうかを客観的に定めることは難しく、どうしても主観的にならざるを得ない（中略）「現代仮名遣い」では、「世界中」「稲妻」などの一部の語は、「じ」「ず」で書くことを本則とし、「ぢ」「づ」で書くことも許容するという方針が打ち出された – sundowner Aug 31 '21 at 03:34
  • If you can read/understand it, [this blog post](https://mtoyoshi.hateblo.jp/entry/20080613/1213410155) is very interesting. quote: 小学生が学校のテストで「地面」を「ぢめん」と書いて×にされてしまった。先生になぜ「じめん」と書くのかを質問したところ先生がたじたじになり「それは決まりだから」と答えてしまった、というものだ。 -- 他にも「大詰め」と「差詰め」も、歴史的仮名遣いの場合だと「詰（つ）める」だから「おおづめ」「さしづめ」と書いていた。しかしながら現代かなづかいでは「おおづめ」と「さしずめ」らしい。 ... They're EXTREMELY fuzzy! – Skye-AT Aug 31 '21 at 04:08
  • Actually, there's no difference between the pronunciation of ず and づ nowadays so Japanese people often refer to づ as「つにてんてん」(つ with dots) – puhitaku Aug 31 '21 at 08:30
  • @puhitaku I thought we were talking about Yomigana not pronunciation? – Skye-AT Aug 31 '21 at 08:52
  • @Skye-AT It's just FYI sry – puhitaku Aug 31 '21 at 08:54
  • @puhitaku No worries :) – Skye-AT Aug 31 '21 at 08:56