Occurrence of っ in verb stems


Today when I came across the verb [訴]{うった}える in a sentence somewhere, it
suddenly hit me that I don't very often see verbs like that: ones that have a
sokuon (little っ) in their stem. The only verbs that come to my mind are ones
of the type ホッとする、[発展]{はってん}する、[決定]{けってい}する et cetera, i.e. verbs that stem
from a noun.

It so happens that the noun 訴え is the heart of 訴える so this verb, though not
ending in する, also belongs to that category of verbs stemming from nouns.

**My question is the following** : Are there verbs that do contain this little
っ in their stem, but do _not_ derive from some noun? Even more strongly, could
you state as a rule that a っ does _not_ occur in the stem of a (let me just
call it) "pure" verb?

I would be interested in reading more on origins of Japanese verbs, so any
recommendations on this are also very welcome!




Here are some "pure"(?) verbs that include っ in their stem:

  * いらっしゃる ←いらせらる
  * 仰る（おっしゃる） ←おおせある
  * 尊ぶ（たっとぶ） ←たふとぶ
  * 則る（のっとる） ←のりとる
  * 欲する（ほっする） ←ほりす

According to デジタル大辞泉, these are simply lexicalized euphonic changes of archaic
verbs. 訴える was originally
[うるたふ](http://www.weblio.jp/content/%E3%81%86%E3%82%8B%E3%81%9F%E3%81%86).

If you can include compound verbs and verbs with intensifier prefixes, many
verbs contain っ. To list a few:

  * 乗っ取る
  * かっ飛ぶ、すっ飛ぶ、ぶっ飛ぶ、吹っ飛ぶ
  * はっ倒す
  * 引っこ抜く、引っ張る、引っ付く、引っかける
  * くっつく、突っつく、せっつく
  * ぶっ放す、ぶっ倒す、ぶっ殺す、ぶっ刺す、ぶっちぎる




訴{うった}える does not derive from noun 訴{うった}え, but rather the opposite -- the
noun 訴{うった}え derives from verb 訴{うった}える, as the stem or continuative form of
the verb.

In turn, 訴{うった}える comes from older classical form 訴{うった}ふ. This was a
下{しも}二段{にだん}活用{かつよう}動詞{どうし}, or "lower bigrade conjugation verb". The "lower"
part refers to the vowel of the stem, and "bigrade" means that there were two
different vowel endings. For 下{しも} verbs, these vowel endings were _‑ u_ and
_‑ e_. ([JA Wikipedia article
here](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%8B%E4%BA%8C%E6%AE%B5%E6%B4%BB%E7%94%A8).)
This contrasted with 上{かみ}二段{にだん}活用{かつよう}動詞{どうし}, for which the two vowel
endings were _‑ u_ and _‑ i_. ([JA Wikipedia article
here](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%8A%E4%BA%8C%E6%AE%B5%E6%B4%BB%E7%94%A8).)
Over time (some time around the [Muromachi
period](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muromachi_period), 1336–1573) both
bigrade forms collapsed to unigrade forms, losing the _‑ u_ verb-stem endings
to just have _‑ e_ for 下{しも} verbs like 訴{うった}ふ (now 訴{うった}える) and 食{た}ぶ (now
食{た}べる), and to just have _‑ i_ for 上{かみ} verbs like 落{お}つ (now 落{お}ちる) and
過{す}ぐ (now 過{す}ぎる).

Looking back further, 訴{うった}ふ got its geminated _‑ tt‑_ as a phonological
contraction or erosion of older form 訴{うるた}ふ, which was apparently the form in
use in the early [Heian period](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heian_period)
(794–1185).

I cannot find much beyond this point in history to divine the verb's
derivation any further. This verb _urutapu_ is long enough to suggest a
compound derivation, but I cannot find any clear roots. The verb ending in
classical Japanese and earlier was ふ, a common auxiliary verb used to indicate
repeated action or ongoing state, but this only attached to the incomplete
form (未然形{みぜんけい}) of the preceding verb, and I cannot find any clear
indication of an ancient verb _urutu_. The last two morae, たふ, could have been
ancient verb 給{た}ふ used as an honorific auxiliary, but this only attached to
the continuative form of a verb, and うる does not conform to continuative
conjugation patterns. The underlying ultimate derivation appears to be lost in
time.

( **Note:** Shogakukan's big 国語{こくご}大{だい}辞典{じてん} is my primary source.)

