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https://twitter.com/tyomateee2/status/1440691228115230731

イッヌ「ご主人！がんばって！」

In the above dog-related tweet, 犬 seems to be spelled as 'イッヌ' rather than 'イヌ'. Is the presence of 'ッ' a typo or is it a stylistic choice? If it's not a typo, are there circumstances where you should use write ッヌ instead of ンヌ in a word?

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It's Japanese equivalent of the word doge and doggo(thanks to @naruto). It's a slang for a word 犬/イヌ, that was born in famous Japanese BBS, 2ch.

So no, you shouldn't be using this word in normal conversation. You can however, use this word in a tweet like that.

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  • But why is it イッヌ and not インヌ?
    – istrasci
    Sep 24, 2021 at 13:31
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    @Skye-AT, if you're familiar at all with IPA, could you annotate the difference in pronunciation between イッヌ and インヌ? That would help to clarify. I am unfamiliar with small-っ used with the "N" kana, and I do not know what this would indicate if not for a geminate "N" sound, so ッヌ would be functionally equivalent with ンヌ. But from what you're saying here, the two should be pronounced differently?
    – Eiríkr Útlendi
    Sep 24, 2021 at 17:21
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    @Skye-AT, I'm familiar with 促音 as a feature of Japanese. I am not familiar with 促音 + the "N" kana, and that video doesn't address this at all.
    – Eiríkr Útlendi
    Sep 24, 2021 at 21:38
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    @EiríkrÚtlendi ッヌ is simply an invalid combination in standard Japanese, and I think no one can explain how to pronounce イッヌ "properly". No one would complain whether you pronounced it like インヌ or like イ・ヌ. This is internet slang after all, and it became popular exactly because of its silly spelling.
    – naruto
    Sep 27, 2021 at 2:35
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    @EiríkrÚtlendi Ah, now I see what you meant. I think you should know this: There is no other word that's with "-な/に/ぬ/ね/の/ん" that comes with 促音(AFAIK). This is internet slang after all, it's not supposed to be pronounced correctly (as naruto said). So I think there's no way to indicate how to pronounce this with IPA... The most closest expression is "i'nu" as SpikedHelmet indicated.
    – Skye-AT
    Sep 27, 2021 at 5:42
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I don't know if it can be called as a stylistic choice, but the 'spelling' イッヌ is intentional. It is a slang which originated from a (notorious) Japanese website (then) called 2ちゃんねる. This explains how it got created.

As such, if you know nothing about the website, it is better to stay away from writing ッヌ.

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