Is there a relationship between 呟く and 粒?


Is there a relationship between the verb 呟く (つぶやく, "murmur", also used to mean
"to tweet" on Twitter) and 粒 (つぶ, used in 粒あん, chunky red bean paste), or is
the sound a coincidence?

_(I heard "tsubuyaku" a few times in shows before actually seeing it written,
and what made sense to my mind was that it was like sending "chunks of
thought". I recently saw it written, and discovered that it was an actual verb
with an actual meaning, and probably not a cleverly coined neologism as I
thought.)_




This is only a partial answer, but I think you might be correct in your
assumption that there is a connection between the two words, despite the kanji
being different. There are many homophones in Japanese and this means that
there are often instances of coincidental phonetic equivalences. But in the
case of your question, there could be a connection.

There is an interesting article
[here](https://mobility-8074.at.webry.info/201611/article_25.html) which
compares the words ささやく, つぶやく, and ぼやく. The article argues that the words were
formed by using a giseigo root (onomatopoeic words) with the suffix やく
(meaning 'to produce that state'). For つぶやく, the article lists two
etymological possibilities: that つぶつぶ provides the meaning of 'detailed', or
that 粒 provides the meaning of 'grains/small lumps'. This semantic overlap
produces the meaning of 'speak in a detailed manner' [according to the
article]. In other words, (1) the つぶ in つぶやく derives from the giseigo word
つぶつぶ, which itself derives from the noun 粒. Or (2) that it derives directly
from 粒.

While the above article suggests that the phonetic equivalence of つぶ and
つぶ(やく) is not coincidental, I don't know why the kanji 呟 was assigned to つぶやく.
Perhaps another user can provide more detailed etymological information on
that character. My speculation is that when the word つぶやく became established
in the language, the connection to the original meaning of 'grain' became
obscure, leading to it being assigned its own kanji for clarity. Again, that
is speculation.




This is only a partial answer, but I think you might be correct in your
assumption that there is a connection between the two words, despite the kanji
being different. There are many homophones in Japanese and this means that
there are often instances of coincidental phonetic equivalences. But in the
case of your question, there could be a connection.

There is an interesting article
[here](https://mobility-8074.at.webry.info/201611/article_25.html) which
compares the words ささやく, つぶやく, and ぼやく. The article argues that the words were
formed by using a giseigo root (onomatopoeic words) with the suffix やく
(meaning 'to produce that state'). For つぶやく, the article lists two
etymological possibilities: that つぶつぶ provides the meaning of 'detailed', or
that 粒 provides the meaning of 'grains/small lumps'. This semantic overlap
produces the meaning of 'speak in a detailed manner' [according to the
article]. In other words, (1) the つぶ in つぶやく derives from the giseigo word
つぶつぶ, which itself derives from the noun 粒. Or (2) that it derives directly
from 粒.

While the above article suggests that the phonetic equivalence of つぶ and
つぶ(やく) is not coincidental, I don't know why the kanji 呟 was assigned to つぶやく.
Perhaps another user can provide more detailed etymological information on
that character. My speculation is that when the word つぶやく became established
in the language, the connection to the original meaning of 'grain' became
obscure, leading to it being assigned its own kanji for clarity. Again, that
is speculation.

