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How should I read 花弁? I came across it in this sentence from ねじまき鳥と火曜日の女たち by
村上春樹.

> テーブルの上には紫色の木蓮の花弁が雨に打たれてはりついていた

大辞泉 has these two entries, which leads me to believe 花弁 is more officially
correct as a way of writing かべん than of はなびら.

> か‐べん【花弁・花×瓣】  
>  はな‐びら【花△弁・花△片・×瓣】

On the other hand, I feel like I've heard the word はなびら more often in speech.
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2019-04-14T22:49:23.087
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question
readings multiple-readings
How should I read 花弁?
Both readings are possible. はなびら is a yamato-kotoba (wago) and thus much more
common as a word, but it tends to be spelled as 花びら to avoid confusion. For
reference, [this lyrics search](https://www.uta-net.com/) knows 3,338 songs
that contain `花びら` and 203 songs that contain `花弁`. For this reason, when I
see 花弁 in all-kanji, I personally read it かべん most of the time. かべん sounds
relatively stiffer, but IMHO it's not strange in a serious literary work. But
this is basically a matter of taste, and I know almost nothing about
Murakami's writing style. His fans may think differently.
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2019-04-17T02:42:36.033
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村上春樹's style is basically spoken language in daily life. So はな‐びら is better.
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