hiragana question: yukuri

[henk991]

In the survival phrases, the phrase yukuri is introduced. In the hiragana representation I see the character for tsu between yu and ku. Why is this in there? Is it a way of saying that you have to hold the ku?

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[Garyuchin]

The condensed つ acts to double the following consonant, and tends to suppress the preceding vowel. As under:

まっちます - macchimasu - the っち sounds as tchi, so this could be written as matchimasu in some texts - (polite) I wait

そっと - sotto - gently そと - soto - outside

ゆっく - yukku - slowly 　ゆく - yuku (variant, iku) - to go/proceed.
y'Ku, yuku (extremely rough attempt to reproduce the sound in writing.)

In Manga, the condensed つ is often used to suppress the final vowel of a word, or even to eliminate the vowel in a syllable:
word ending:
です　－ desu　becomes ですっ　－ dess. (Not that this particular form will be found, because dess is frequently the pronunciation anyway)

Syllable Ending:
まっ　まっ　ま　待ってください　- m m ma matte kudasai - w-w-wai-wait please.

I don't know if the condensed つ has this kind of use in other publications though.