Recently, I was reminded of 手ずから again and connected it to 自ら{みずか} and おのずから this time. I was wondering if the structure ずから is used anywhere else? Some research seems to indicate that might be related to つ+柄.
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That's interesting! Bookmarking for future reference. – rebuuilt Jun 26 '20 at 8:40
I researched and found some words which have similar meaning with these samples.
- 口ずから (by one's own mouth)
- 足ずから (by one's own feet)
- 心ずから (by one's own heart/will)
As a different meaning, ず+から seems to lead a meaning of relationship.
- 隣ずから (with relationship of next to each other)
- いとこずから (with relationship of cousins)
In my experience, these words I shared are rare especially in modern Japanese.
As you mentioned, this pattern seems to be derived from "つ"(one of particle) + "柄"(essence) like "身つ柄" → みずから. The particle "つ" is almost the same as "の". Surprisingly, "つ" in まつげ(eyelash) was originally the same as this particle meaning ま(目 eye) + つ + げ(毛 hair) meaning "eyes' hair". "柄" is common in modern Japanese like "人柄"(personality) and "家柄"(culture/custom of family).
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2I’m really fascinated about how the 濁音 in some words shifts sometimes. It’s like a limited form of metathesis. 手伝う is another unexpected one compared to the naive 連濁 you might expect. – Darius Jahandarie Jun 26 '20 at 14:57
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Oh, I haven't noticed that 手伝う has a sound shifting!! Definitely unexpected in the case つ+から too. Not only the particle shifted つ→づ→ず but 柄 didn't change to がら. – Mitsutoshi Watanabe Jun 27 '20 at 12:00
