All about hikkoshi (moving)

Compound verbs and doubled consonants

I haven’t posted for almost a month because I was busy moving from California to Nevada. I’m gradually getting settled. Let me take the opportunity to talk about the Japanese word for moving: hikkoshi (引っ越し).

It’s weird: normally we expect Japanese words to be broad and vague and usable in many contexts, but hikkoshi refers very specifically to moving oneself, one’s family, and one’s possessions to a new house.

Of course this word is the noun form of hikkosu, which breaks down into 引く (hiku, pull) and 越す (kosu, cross over or exceed). But what’s being pulled here, and what’s being crossed over? Well, just think of a person pulling all his possessions across a mountain to their new home on the other side!

Alas, that is probably not the actual derivation of hikkoshi, although it’s a fun mental image to remember the word by! A more likely theory as to its origin is that the hiku in question here is not “pull”, as in “pull your household effects over the hill”, but rather the meaning of “withdraw” or “leave”. In this version of the etymology, hikkoshi means you are leaving your old house and jumping up to a nicer house—which in the pre-Edo era often occurred when a samurai experienced some rise in status.

Compound Verbs

Hikkoshi is a typical example of a compound verb, of which Japanese has thousands. In Japanese they’re called 複合動詞 (fukugō dōshi). We’ve explored them in the past, such as in an article about komu (込む), which as it happens was about my previous move and the notion of “settling in” (住み込む/sumikomu) to my new place.

Compound verbs combine their two parts in different ways. One common pattern is to describe concurrent action—A and B happen together. Then there is cause and effect—A happens and because of that B happens. In this case the two elements are sequential: we have people leaving their old house and moving up to their new abode.

Doubled Consonants

So why is this hikkoshi, and not hiki-koshi? What’s the deal with the doubled “k”? Phonologists call these consonants geminates, which basically just means that they’re longer. The longer duration is mainly taken up by simply pausing, holding your mouth immobile, ceasing any articulatory movement, before releasing the consonant sound.

Try it right now. Say the word ぶっ殺す (bukkorosu, “beat to death”). Watch how you linger on the “k”. Many beginning speakers don’t linger long enough. If you’re an advanced speaker, you might find yourself making the pause even longer—three or four times the usual length as opposed to the normal two times—as a way to give additional emphasis to the word.

Normally you’d find “k”, and “p”, and “s”, and “t” doubled in this way. ¹If you’re writing a haiku or in other contexts where syllable counts matter, these doubled consonants count as two. In other words, makka (真っ赤, ruby red) counts as three syllables. It may be easier just to remember that the little TSU (っ) is counted as its own syllable.

In the case of hikkoshi, it’s believed that it was in fact originally hiki-koshi, but sometime in the Edo period evolved into hikkoshi.

But there are many cases where doubling could occur, but doesn’t. What governs when doubling does or not occur? The doubling typically is found in cases where you want to add emphasis, or an onomatopoeic flavor. It strengthens the verb, making it feel more forceful, sudden, or intense. It often appears in colloquial or slang words, giving them a rough or emphatic feel. Many of these verbs are used in energetic actions, destruction, or intense movement.

Doubling could also occur if doubling made the word easier to pronounce, if the doubled version is more pleasing to the ear (or “euphonic”, as the linguists would say). The little TSU is called sokuon (促音); using it to make the word easier to pronounce, or to emphasize its semantics, is called 促音便 (sokuonbin), an amalgamation of 促音 and 音便 (onbin, “euphony”).

Some good compound verbs with doubled consonants are 蹴っ飛ばす (kettobasu), give a good kick; 突っ走る (tsuppashiru), run headlong; and 張っ倒す (hattaosu), knock down—what’s the haru doing here?

What is your favorite compound verb with doubled consonant?

1. Although foreign words might double other sounds, like グッズ (goods), or even before “r”, as in アッラー (Allah).