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So there's this new anime adaptation of a manga called Call of the Night aka Yofukashi no Uta. In Wikipedia, the Japanese is given as just よふかしのうた. Wiktionary gives 2 possible meanings

  1. 夜更かし
  2. 夜更し

What's the difference, and more importantly how can they both read as 'Yofukashi no Uta' with that it seems either 1 has an extra 'か' or the other is missing a 'か' ?

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    If you read the Wiktionary pages in question, you'll notice they're alternate spellings of the same word... it's another question of history how a spelling arose which reads 更 as ふか (perhaps something to do with 更かす having as an alternative 深す), but your premises are confused. (Also, this is nothing to do with particle-か).
    – Unrelated String
    Commented Jul 10, 2022 at 23:22
  • @UnrelatedString So 更 is either fu or fuka you mean? Note: I'm a huge Japanese n00b. I just took a course in uni and watch anime. I pretty much know just the hiragana and katana.
    – BCLC
    Commented Jul 11, 2022 at 2:25

1 Answer 1

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夜更かし is the modern standard spelling, and 夜更し is an abbreviated spelling. The latter is inappropriate in modern newspaper articles and such, but may have a literary or traditional flavor. The meaning stays exactly the same.

Many words with okurigana have one or more nonstandard abbreviated spellings. 夜更し is just one of thousands of many similar examples. See:

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