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I've encountered a song with romaji title `Katatsubasa no tenshi`, which I
would understand, but the other day someone handed me an album with romaji-ed
names, where the same song was written as `Katayoku no tenshi` so which is OK?
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2014-02-15T22:15:08.550
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question
readings
How do i read 翼 in "one-winged"
I have always heard this as `katayoku`.  
(e.g. _Umineko no Naku Koro ni_ makes plenty of references to a
[片翼]{katayoku}[の]{no}[鷲]{washi}.)

For what it's worth (maybe very little), Google IME also suggests this song
title as the first entry upon entering `katayoku` and does not recognize
`katatsubasa` as a 2-kanji compound.

There is some discussion
[here](http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1136501161)
about this same song, where the answerers have the same opinion. The first
answer by ffbiyoriさん says that the word was coined fairly recently, and so the
reading varies, with `hen'yoku` and `katatsubasa` also being seen sometimes,
but less commonly than `katayoku`.

(Also note that if you search EDICT for [words ending in
翼](http://tangorin.com/general/%2a%E7%BF%BC), they all use the `yoku`
reading.)
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2014-02-15T23:14:53.087
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answer
I believe it is katayoku.

normally, there are two ways to read kanji. kun-yomi and on-yomi. on-yomi is
pronunciation derived from chinese reading, and kun-yomi is the traditional
japanese reading. usually in a single vocabulary, these two types of readings
do not mix. however, there are few special cases where these two types of
reading do mix. these are called yuto-yumi(in order of kun-yomi, on-yomi) and
jyuubako-yomi(vise versa). in most of the time, the words that are read in
these types have been used for a long time and known as the "special cases."

however, in the case of 片翼, this is something taht came up recently. it was
probably first used by Taro Koizumi in his novel "Katayoku dakeno tenshi" and
since then, 片翼 has been read katayoku. it's like a coined word, so maybe if he
had titled his novel "katatsubasa dakeno tenshi," we would have been reading
片翼 as katasubasa.
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answer