The verb in いらしてください


On occasion, I hear things such as 是非、いらしてください and ここへいらしたんですか. They seem to
be politer forms of 是非、来てください and ここへ来たんですか. But searching finds no verb いらす
or いらしる, and so a thought came to my mind: could they be colloquial forms of
いらっしゃって and いらっしゃった? Less colloquially, would my examples be 是非、いらっしゃってください
and ここへいらっしゃったのですか? Is my suspicion close to the truth?




It's ambiguous whether いらして would be a form of いらしる or いらす, but neither verb
exists in the standard language.

いらす isn't listed in dictionaries as a word because it's not a separate verb
with a full range of forms. It would be more accurate to say that いらし is a
reduced form of いらっしゃっ, the 音便形 of いらっしゃる. (The 音便形 is the altered form of the
連用形 that appears before _t_ -morphemes such as て and た.)

This reduction is most common before て. If we search the Google Japanese Web
N-gram corpus (2007), we find the following numbers:

[code]

    　いらっしゃっ **て**　　355269
    　いらし **て**　　　　　1620011
[/code]

As you can see, this reduction is extremely common! We can verify that いらして is
the most common form by checking other corpora. In the Balanced Corpus of
Contemporary Written Japanese, we find a similar ratio, with 285 and 90
results respectively (after removing false positives with the form いらいらして).

Although いらし is most common before て, it appears before other _t_ -morphemes
as well. I'll go back to the Google Japanese Web N-gram corpus, since it's
significantly larger:

[code]

    　いらっしゃっ **た**　　554636 
    　いらし **た**　　　　　597706
    
    　いらっしゃっ **たら**　239239
    　いらし **たら**　　　　182970
    
    　いらっしゃっ **たり**　16167
    　いらし **たり**　　　  8085
[/code]

If いらしる were actually a derived verb that needed to be listed in dictionaries
on its own, we would expect to find examples of it as well, but we don't find
any at all:

[code]

    　いらっしゃ **る**　　　4533100
    　いらし **る**　　　　　0
[/code]

We do find いらす, but it's not especially common, and prescriptive sources
consider it a mistake (it's listed as 誤用 in 明鏡国語辞典):

[code]

    　いら **す**　　　　　　28608
[/code]

Samuel Martin describes several reduced forms of the 音便形, including いらし, in
his 1975 _Reference Grammar of Japanese_ on page 347:

> Both men and women readily use several variant forms for irassyát-, so that
> in addition to irassyátta you will hear irássitta, irásitta, irássita, and
> irásita. These variants no doubt were gradually developed to simplify the
> articulation: the low vowel _a_ is raised to the high vowels _u_ and _i_ so
> as to become unvoiced between the voiceless consonants; the double _ss_ and
> _tt_ are reduced to shorten the word.

And it's possible you may hear other reductions besides いらし. But the other
forms he lists are all quite unusual by comparison:

[code]

    　**いらして**　**1620011**
    　**いらっしゃって**　**355269**
    　いらっして　　　　 3351
    　いらっしって　　　 344
    　いらしって　　　　 895
    
    　**いらした**　**597706**
    　**いらっしゃった**　**554636**
    　いらっした　　　　 1586
    　いらしった　　　　 1448
    　いらっしった　　　 390
    
    　**いらっしゃったら**　**239239**
    　**いらしたら**　**182970**
    　いらっしたら　　　 226
    　いらしったら　　　 152
    　いらっしったら　　 67
    
    　**いらっしゃったり**　**16167**
    　**いらしたり**　**8085**
    　いらっしったり　　 0
    　いらしったり　　　 0
    　いらっしたり　　　 0
[/code]

These other reduced forms are listed in other sources as well, including
日本国語大辞典.

Reduced forms of words in general are more colloquial, but that often changes
over time as they become more common. いらっしゃる itself was originally a reduced
form of いらせらる, but it's now seen as the basic form of the word. いらして is still
seen as a reduced form today, so speakers may perceive a difference between
いらっしゃって and いらして, but this reduction is really extremely common, so I don't
think it's _especially_ marked.

Note that the initial い is sometimes elided as well, often following ～て:

[code]

    　**て** いらっしゃ **る**　　1695907
    　**て** らっしゃ **る**　　　834652
    
    　**て** いらっしゃっ **て**　43510
    　**て** らっしゃっ **て**　　22493
    
    　**て** いらっしゃっ **た**　132599
    　**て** らっしゃっ **た**　　64947
    
    　**て** いらし **て**　　　　77646
    　**て** らし **て**　　　　　59034
    
    　**て** いらし **た**　　　　158569
    　**て** らし **た**　　　　　147049
[/code]

This is similar to reducing ～ている to ～てる colloquially, although it's not
_quite_ as common. As you can see from the numbers above, eliding the い is
especially frequent in combination with reducing いらっしゃっ to いらし.




It's ambiguous whether いらして would be a form of いらしる or いらす, but neither verb
exists in the standard language.

いらす isn't listed in dictionaries as a word because it's not a separate verb
with a full range of forms. It would be more accurate to say that いらし is a
reduced form of いらっしゃっ, the 音便形 of いらっしゃる. (The 音便形 is the altered form of the
連用形 that appears before _t_ -morphemes such as て and た.)

This reduction is most common before て. If we search the Google Japanese Web
N-gram corpus (2007), we find the following numbers:

[code]

    　いらっしゃっ **て**　　355269
    　いらし **て**　　　　　1620011
[/code]

As you can see, this reduction is extremely common! We can verify that いらして is
the most common form by checking other corpora. In the Balanced Corpus of
Contemporary Written Japanese, we find a similar ratio, with 285 and 90
results respectively (after removing false positives with the form いらいらして).

Although いらし is most common before て, it appears before other _t_ -morphemes
as well. I'll go back to the Google Japanese Web N-gram corpus, since it's
significantly larger:

[code]

    　いらっしゃっ **た**　　554636 
    　いらし **た**　　　　　597706
    
    　いらっしゃっ **たら**　239239
    　いらし **たら**　　　　182970
    
    　いらっしゃっ **たり**　16167
    　いらし **たり**　　　  8085
[/code]

If いらしる were actually a derived verb that needed to be listed in dictionaries
on its own, we would expect to find examples of it as well, but we don't find
any at all:

[code]

    　いらっしゃ **る**　　　4533100
    　いらし **る**　　　　　0
[/code]

We do find いらす, but it's not especially common, and prescriptive sources
consider it a mistake (it's listed as 誤用 in 明鏡国語辞典):

[code]

    　いら **す**　　　　　　28608
[/code]

Samuel Martin describes several reduced forms of the 音便形, including いらし, in
his 1975 _Reference Grammar of Japanese_ on page 347:

> Both men and women readily use several variant forms for irassyát-, so that
> in addition to irassyátta you will hear irássitta, irásitta, irássita, and
> irásita. These variants no doubt were gradually developed to simplify the
> articulation: the low vowel _a_ is raised to the high vowels _u_ and _i_ so
> as to become unvoiced between the voiceless consonants; the double _ss_ and
> _tt_ are reduced to shorten the word.

And it's possible you may hear other reductions besides いらし. But the other
forms he lists are all quite unusual by comparison:

[code]

    　**いらして**　**1620011**
    　**いらっしゃって**　**355269**
    　いらっして　　　　 3351
    　いらっしって　　　 344
    　いらしって　　　　 895
    
    　**いらした**　**597706**
    　**いらっしゃった**　**554636**
    　いらっした　　　　 1586
    　いらしった　　　　 1448
    　いらっしった　　　 390
    
    　**いらっしゃったら**　**239239**
    　**いらしたら**　**182970**
    　いらっしたら　　　 226
    　いらしったら　　　 152
    　いらっしったら　　 67
    
    　**いらっしゃったり**　**16167**
    　**いらしたり**　**8085**
    　いらっしったり　　 0
    　いらしったり　　　 0
    　いらっしたり　　　 0
[/code]

These other reduced forms are listed in other sources as well, including
日本国語大辞典.

Reduced forms of words in general are more colloquial, but that often changes
over time as they become more common. いらっしゃる itself was originally a reduced
form of いらせらる, but it's now seen as the basic form of the word. いらして is still
seen as a reduced form today, so speakers may perceive a difference between
いらっしゃって and いらして, but this reduction is really extremely common, so I don't
think it's _especially_ marked.

Note that the initial い is sometimes elided as well, often following ～て:

[code]

    　**て** いらっしゃ **る**　　1695907
    　**て** らっしゃ **る**　　　834652
    
    　**て** いらっしゃっ **て**　43510
    　**て** らっしゃっ **て**　　22493
    
    　**て** いらっしゃっ **た**　132599
    　**て** らっしゃっ **た**　　64947
    
    　**て** いらし **て**　　　　77646
    　**て** らし **て**　　　　　59034
    
    　**て** いらし **た**　　　　158569
    　**て** らし **た**　　　　　147049
[/code]

This is similar to reducing ～ている to ～てる colloquially, although it's not
_quite_ as common. As you can see from the numbers above, eliding the い is
especially frequent in combination with reducing いらっしゃっ to いらし.

