夜

Stroke order

Stroke order

夜 (Kangxi radical 36, 夕+5, 8 strokes, cangjie input 卜人弓大 (YONK), four-corner 0024₇, composition ⿱亠⿰亻⿴夂丶)

• 㖡, 液, 鵺, 腋, 掖, 𨿤

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 246, character 18
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 5763
• Dae Jaweon: page 490, character 7
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 1, page 285, character 1
• Unihan data for U+591C

Historical forms of the character 夜
Western Zhou	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Bronze inscriptions	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *laːɡs) : phonetic 亦 (OC *laːɡ) + semantic 夕 (“moon”). 夕 (OC *ljaːɡ) may also serve as another phonetic component.

The lower-right portion is a corruption/graphical variant of 夕 (xī); the remainder (亠 + 亻) is a reduced and distorted form of 亦 (yì), used phonetically.

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *ja-n (“night”) (STEDT); cognate with Mizo zân (“night”), Burmese ည (nya., “night”).

Schuessler (2007) believes 夜 (OC *laːɡs) and 夕 (OC *ljaːɡ) are distinct as Tibeto-Burman keeps the etyma *ja-n (“night”) and *s-r(j)ak (“day; day (24 hours); night”) strictly separate. However, Baxter and Sagart (2014) suggest that 夜 (yè) and 夕 (xī) have clear etymological connections and thus reconstructs similar finals in both words.

夜

1. night

   See also: 晚

   晝短夜長／昼短夜长  ―  zhòu duǎn yè cháng  ―  short days and long nights

   • 夜來風雨聲，花落知多少？ [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     夜来风雨声，花落知多少？ [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: Meng Haoran, 《春曉》, translated by Xu Yuanchong

     Yè lái fēngyǔ shēng, huā luò zhī duōshǎo?

     After one night of wind and showers, how many are the fallen flowers!

2. (Cantonese) late (in the night)

   我呢排晚晚都好夜先返屋企。 [Cantonese, trad. and simp.]

   ngo⁵ ni¹ paai⁴ maan⁵ maan⁵ dou¹ hou² je⁶ sin¹ faan¹ uk¹ kei².

   Recently, I've been going home quite late in the night.

   我夜啲先走都得。 [Cantonese, trad. and simp.]

   ngo⁵ je⁶ di¹ sin¹ zau² dou¹ dak¹.

   I can leave later in the evening.

3. Classifier for the number of nights.

   三天兩夜／三天两夜  ―  sān tiān liǎng yè  ―  three days and two nights

4. (Cantonese) night shift; night work

• “夜”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎, 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014–
• Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants (教育部異體字字典), A00843

夜

1. (Southern Min) Alternative form of 暝

(Second grade kyōiku kanji)

• Go-on: や (ya, Jōyō)
• Kan-on: や (ya, Jōyō)
• Kun: よ (yo, 夜, Jōyō)、よる (yoru, 夜, Jōyō)
• Nanori: やす (yasu)

⟨yo₁ru⟩ → */jʷoru/ → /joru/

From Old Japanese, from Proto-Japonic *yoru.

Derived from yo below, suffixed with an element ru of unclear meaning.^[1] Compare 日 (hi, “day”) → 昼 (hiru, “daytime”), which seems to use this same ru element.^[1]

Found in the Man'yōshū, completed some time after 759 C.E., with the phonetic spelling 用流.^[1]

Now the most common term for night in modern Japanese.

• (Tokyo) よる (Atamadaka – )^[2][3]
• IPA^(key):

夜(よる) • (yoru) 

1. the night, evening

   Synonym: 夜間 (yakan)

   Antonym: 昼 (hiru)

   東(とう)京(きょう)の夜(よる)

   Tōkyō no yoru

   Tokyo nights

   夜(よる)の街(まち)を歩(ある)く

   yoru no machi o aruku

   to walk the streets at night

   (literally, “to walk the night streets”)

   不(ふ)安(あん)な夜(よる)を過(す)ごす

   fuan na yoru o sugosu

   to endure a night of anxiety

   (literally, “to pass an uneasy night”)

   夜(よる)の星(ほし)空(ぞら)を見(み)上(あ)げる

   yoru no hoshizora o miageru

   to look up at the night's starry sky

夜(よる) • (Yoru) 

1. a female given name

⟨yo₁⟩ → /jʷo/ → /jo/

From Old Japanese, from Proto-Japonic *yo.

First attested in the Kojiki of 712 CE with the phonetic spelling 用.^[1]

In modern development, this term has taken on a more literary sense.

• (Tokyo) よ (Atamadaka – )^[2][3]
• IPA^(key):

夜(よ) • (yo) 

1. (literary) night, evening

   『真(ま)夏(なつ)の夜(よ)の夢(ゆめ)』 ― “Manatsu no Yo no Yume” ― A Midsummer Night’s Dream