Romanization of Korean
The romanization of Korean (Korean: 로마자 표기법; RR: romaja pyogibeop) is the use of the Latin script to transcribe the Korean language. Korea's alphabetic script, called Hangul, has historically been used in conjunction with Hanja (Chinese characters), though such practice has become infrequent.
Major systems
[edit]![]() |
Korean writing systems |
---|
Hangul |
|
Hanja |
Mixed script |
Braille |
Transcription |
Transliteration |
|
Many romanization schemes are in common use:
- McCune–Reischauer ("MR"; 1939): the first transcription to gain some acceptance. A slightly modified version of MR was the official system for Korean in South Korea from 1984 to 2000, and yet a different modification is still the official system in North Korea. MR uses breves, apostrophes and diereses, the latter two indicating syllable boundaries in cases that would otherwise be ambiguous.
- Several variants of MR, often also called "McCune's and Reischauer's", differ from the original mostly in whether word endings are separated from the stem by a space, by a hyphen or not at all; and if a hyphen or space is used, whether sound change is reflected in a stem's last and an ending's first consonant letter (e.g. pur-i vs. pul-i). Although mostly irrelevant when transcribing uninflected words, these variants are so widespread that any mention of "McCune–Reischauer romanization" may not necessarily refer to the original system as published in the 1930s. MR-based romanizations have been common in popular literature until 2000.
- Revised Romanization of Korean ("RR", also called "South Korean" or "Ministry of Culture (MC) 2000"): This is the most commonly used and widely accepted system of romanization for Korean. It includes rules both for transcription and for transliteration. South Korea now officially uses this system which was approved in 2000. Road signs and textbooks were required to follow these rules as soon as possible, at a cost estimated by the government to be at least US$500–600 million.[1] Almost all road signs, names of railway and subway stations on line maps and signs etc. have been changed. Romanization of surnames and existing companies' names (e.g. Hyundai) has been left untouched; the government recommends using the new system for given names and new companies.
- RR is similar to MR, but uses neither diacritics nor apostrophes, which has helped it to gain widespread acceptance on the Internet. In cases of ambiguity, a syllable boundary may be indicated with a hyphen, but this is truly optional; it is not mandatory.[2] Thus, state institutions usually do not make use of this option.
- The ALA-LC / U.S. Library of Congress system is based on but deviates from MR. Unlike in MR, it addresses word division in seven pages of detail. Syllables of given names are always separated with a hyphen, which is expressly never done by MR. Sound changes are ignored more often than in MR. ALA-LC also distinguishes between ‘ and ’.[3]
- Yale (1942): This system has become the established standard romanization for Korean among linguists. Vowel length in old or dialectal pronunciation is indicated by a macron. In cases that would otherwise be ambiguous, orthographic syllable boundaries are indicated with a period. This system also indicates consonants that have disappeared from a word's South Korean orthography and standard pronunciation.
- Romanization of Korean (1992): The official romanization in North Korea. This is also based on but deviates from MR.
In addition to the systems above, many people spell names or other words in an ad hoc manner, producing more variations (e.g. 이/리 (李), which is variously romanized as Lee, Yi, I, or Rhee). Even a single surname within a single family can be romanized differently on South Korean passports. For example, within a single 심 family, the father's surname can be "Shim" while his son's can be "Sim".[4]
History
[edit]The first romanization system for Korean was an 1835 unnamed and unpublished system by missionary Walter Henry Medhurst that was used in his translation of a book on the Chinese, Korean, and Japanese languages.[5][a] Medhurst's romanization scheme was otherwise not significantly used. The first system to see significant usage was the Ross system, named for John Ross, which was designed in 1882. It saw adoption by missionaries.[7] In 1874, the Dallet system (for the French language) was introduced. It was the first to use the digraphs eo and eu.[5]
In 1897, James Scarth Gale introduced his system in his work A Korean-English Dictionary.[5] This system went on to achieve some adoption; it was reportedly adopted by the Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. In spite of this, some scholars found issue with these early systems.[8][5] More systems continued to be developed to address these perceived shortcomings. By 1934, according to Japanese linguist Shinpei Ogura's count, there were at least 27 extant systems.[9] Whereas Hepburn romanization had already become the widely accepted standard for the romanization of Japanese by the 1930s, Korean continued to lack such a standard. This led to significant diversity and inconsistencies in romanizations, not only between scholars but reportedly even within the writings of individual authors.[10] In 1935, Jeong In-seop published "The International Phonetic Transcription of Korean Speech Sounds".[5]
Challenges for developing a standard romanization
[edit]The task of developing a standard romanization scheme for Korean was complicated by a number of factors.[8]
Even into the 20th century, there were significant variations in pronunciation and spelling in the Korean language itself, often due to the dialects of Korean.[11] Attempts were made to standardize the Korean language, but these efforts were made by multiple authorities. Two rivaling societies for standardizing Korean emerged: the Korean Language Society (조선어학회) and the Chŏson Ŏhak Yŏn'guhoe (조선어학연구회); they published separate guidances.[12] Other references for spelling included those used in Gale's dictionary, guidances from the Government-General of Chōsen, and a French dictionary.[13]
Other challenges were fundamental to properties of the Korean language and script, which make the language not easily mappable onto the Latin script. McCune and Reischauer claimed in 1939 that there are eight to ten vowels in Korean (this topic was still debated by that point). As there are only five vowels in the Latin script, the other vowel sounds had to be rendered either using multiple letters in the form of digraphs (e.g. eo for ㅓ) or by using diacritics.[14] Also, in many cases, pronunciation does not exactly match what is written in Hangul; this happens with all other major scripts as well. For example, due to linguistic assimilation, the state Silla is written in Korean as 신라 (sin-la), but pronounced sil-la.[15]
Some challenges were social and geopolitical. Reportedly, early scholars often wrote about Korea from Sinocentric or Japanese perspectives; Korean place names were often rendered using pronunciations from the Chinese or Japanese languages. Furthermore, after Korea went under Japanese rule, the "official" names of many places were considered to be those in the Japanese language.[8]
McCune–Reischauer
[edit]McCune–Reischauer is a system that was first introduced in 1939, in the journal Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society Korea Branch.[16][17] It is named for George M. McCune and Edwin O. Reischauer; the two developed the system together in consultation with Korean linguists Choe Hyeon-bae, Jeong In-seop , and Kim Seon-gi .[10][5]
By 1997, there were more than 40 romanization systems.[18]
Other romanization systems
[edit]There were many systems used and proposed:
- The Shibu Shohei System (1961) [19]
- Bok Moon Kim romanization (1996)[20][21]
- National Academy of the Korean Language System (1997)[20]
- HanSe System (1996)[20]
- Lee Hyun Bok's Computer-Communication System (1994)[20]
- Korean Romanization for Data Application (1992)[22]
- You Mahn-gun's System (1992)[20]
- Félix-Clair Ridel dictionary (1880)[23][24]
- Siebold Romanization (1832)[20]
- Dallet System (1874)[20][25]
- SKATS is a transliteration system that does not attempt to use letters of a similar function in Western languages. A similar approach is to transliterate by hitting the keys that would produce a Korean word on a keyboard with Dubeolsik layout (e.g. 위키백과 → dnlzlqorrhk). This can often be seen on the internet, for example in usernames.
- ISO/TR 11941 (1996): This actually is two different standards under one name: one for North Korea (DPRK) and the other for South Korea (ROK). The initial submission to the ISO was based heavily on Yale and was a joint effort between both states, but they could not agree on the final draft. A superficial comparison between the two is available here: [1]
- Lukoff romanization, developed 1945–47 for Fred Lukoff's Spoken Korean coursebooks[26]
Comparison of various systems
[edit]Hangul | IPA | Yale | MR | DPRK | KORDA | RR | Shibu | Lukoff | Mahngun | SKATS | Dubeolsik | SIL | Han |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ㅁ | /m/ | m | m | m | m | m | m | m | m | m | a | m | m |
ㅂ | /p/ | p | p/b | p | b | b/p[b] | b | p | b | w | q | b | b |
ㅃ | /p͈/ | pp | pp | pp | bb | pp | bb | pp | p | ww | Q | B | bb |
ㅍ | /pʰ/ | ph | p' | ph | p | p | p | ph | ph | o | v | p | p |
ㄴ | /n/ | n | n | n | n | n | n | n | n | f | s | n | n |
ㄷ | /t/ | t | t/d | t | d | d/t[b] | d | t | d | b | e | d | d |
ㄸ | /t͈/ | tt | tt | tt | dd | tt | dd | tt | t | bb | E | D | dd |
ㅌ | /tʰ/ | th | t' | th | t | t | t | th | th | z | x | t | t |
ㄹ | /l/ [l] ~ [ɾ] | l | r/l | r | r/l | r/l[b] | r | l | l/r | v | f | r | l |
ㅅ | /s/ | s | s | s | s | s | s | s | s | g | t | s | s |
ㅆ | /s͈/ | ss | ss | ss | ss | ss | ss | ss | ss | gg | T | S | ss |
ㅈ | /t͡ɕ/ ~ /t͡s/ | c | ch/j | ts | j | j | j | j | j | p | w | j | z |
ㅉ | /t͈͡ɕ/ ~ /t͈͡s/ | cc | tch | tss | jj | jj | jj | jj | cz | pp | W | J | zz |
ㅊ | /t͡ɕʰ/ ~ /t͡sʰ/ | ch | ch' | tsh | ch | ch | c | jh | ch | c | c | c | c |
ㄱ | /k/ | k | k/g | k | g | g/k[b] | g | k | g | l | r | g | g |
ㄲ | /k͈/ | kk | kk | kk | gg | kk | gg | kk | k | ll | R | G | gg |
ㅋ | /kʰ/ | kh | k' | kh | k | k | k | kh | kh | x | z | k | k |
ㅎ | /h/ | h | h | h | h | h | h | h | h | j | g | h | h |
ㅇ | silent / /ŋ/[c] | -/ng[c] | -/ng[c] | -/ng[c] | -/ng[c] | -/ng[c] | ' / /q/ | ng | ng | k | d | q | g |
Hangul | IPA | Yale | MR | DPRK | KORDA | RR | Shibu | Lukoff | Mahngun | SKATS | Dubeolsik | SIL | Han |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ㅏ | /a/ | a | a | a | a | a | a | a | a | e | k | a | a |
ㅓ | /ʌ/ | e | ŏ | ŏ | u | eo | e | ø | au | t | j | v | e |
ㅗ | /o/ | (w)o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o | a | h | o | o |
ㅜ | /u/ | wu | u | u | oo | u | u | u | ou | h | n | u | u |
ㅡ | /ɯ/ [ɯ] ~ [ɨ] | u | ŭ | ŭ | eu | eu | y | ʉ | u | d | m | w | w |
ㅣ | /i/ | i | i | i | i | i | i | i | i/y | u | l | i | i |
ㅐ | /ɛ/ | ay | ae | ae | ae | ae | ai | ä | ai | q | o | y | ae |
ㅔ | /e/ | ey | e | e | e | e | ei | e | e | y | p | e | é |
ㅚ | /ø/ [ø] ~ [we] | (w)oy | oe | oe | oe | oe | oi | ö | we | au | hl | oi | ó |
ㅟ | /y/ [y] ~ [ɥi] | wi | wi | we | wi | wi | ui | wi | wi | hu | nl | ui | uj |
ㅢ | /ɰi/ [ɰi] ~ [ɨ̯i] ~ [i] | uy | ŭi | ŭi | ui | ui | yi | ʉ | ui | du | ml | wi | wj |
ㅑ | /ja/ | ya | ya | ya | ya | ya | ia | ya | ya | i | i | f | ja |
ㅕ | /jʌ/ | ye | yŏ | yŏ | yu | yeo | ie | yø | yau | s | u | z | je |
ㅛ | /jo/ | yo | yo | yo | yo | yo | io | yo | yo | n | y | l | jo |
ㅠ | /ju/ | yu | yu | yu | yoo | yu | iu | yu | you | r | b | x | ju |
ㅒ | /jɛ/ | yay | yae | yae | yae | yae | iai | yä | yai | iu | O | Y | jae |
ㅖ | /je/ | yey | ye | ye | ye | ye | iei | ye | ye | su | P | E | jé |
ㅘ | /wa/ | wa | wa | wa | wa | wa | oa | wa | wa | ae | hk | oa | о̄a |
ㅝ | /wʌ/ | we | wŏ | wŏ | wo | wo | ue | wø | wau | ht | nj | uv | о̄e |
ㅙ | /wɛ/ | way | wae | wae | wae | wae | oai | wä | wai | aq | ho | oy | óae |
ㅞ | /we/ | wey | we | we | we | we | uei | we | we | hy | np | ue | о̄é |
Examples
[edit]English | Hangul | IPA | RR (RR transliteration in brackets) |
McC-Rsr | Yale | SKATS | Dubeolsik |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
wall | 벽 | [pjʌk̚] | byeok (byeog) |
pyŏk | pyek | wsl | qur |
on the wall | 벽에 | [pjʌ.ɡe̞] | byeoge (byeog-e) |
pyŏge | pyek ey | wsl ktu | qurdp |
outside (uninflected) |
밖 | [pak̚] | bak (bakk) |
pak | pakk | well | qkR |
outside | 밖에 | [pa.k͈e̞] | bakke (bakk-e) |
pakke | pakk ey | well ktu | qkRdp |
kitchen | 부엌 | [pu.ʌk̚] | bueok (bueok) |
puŏk | puekh | wh ktx | qndjz |
to/in the kitchen | 부엌에 | [pu.ʌ.kʰe̞] | bueoke (bueok-e) |
puŏk'e | puekh ey | wh ktx ktu | qndjzdp |
Wikipedia | 위키백과 | [yk.çi.be̞k̚.k͈wa̠] | wikibaekgwa (wikibaeggwa) |
wikibaekkwa | wikhi payk.kwa | khu xu weul lae | dnlzlqorrhk |
Hangul | 한글 | [han.ɡɯl] | hangeul or han-geul (hangeul) |
han'gŭl | hānkul | jef ldv | gksrmf |
character, letter | 글자 | [kɯl.t͈ɕa] | geulja (geulja) |
kŭlcha | kulqca | ldv pe | rmfwk |
(an) easy (+ noun) | 쉬운 | [ɕɥi.un] | swiun (swiun) |
shwiun | swīwun | ghu khf | tnldns |
Korea has four distinct seasons. | 한국은 네 계절이 뚜렷하다. | [han.ɡu.ɡɯn ne̞ kje̞.dʑʌ.ɾi t͈u.ɾjʌ.tʰa.da] | Hangugeun ne gyejeori tturyeotada. (Hangug-eun ne gyejeol-i ttulyeoshada.) |
Hangugŭn ne kyejŏri tturyŏthada. | Hānkwuk un nēy kyēycel i ttwulyes hata. | jef lhl kdf ftu lsu ptv ku bbh vsg je be | gksrnrdms sp rPwjfdl Enfutgkek. |
Just check the line color and width you want. | 원하시는 선 색깔과 굵기에 체크하시면 됩니다. | [wʌn.ɦa.ɕi.nɯn sʌn sɛ̝k̚.k͈al.ɡwa kul.k͈i.e̞ tɕʰe̞.k͡xɯ.ɦa.ɕi.mjʌn twe̞m.ɲi.da] | Wonhasineun seon saekkkalgwa gulkkie chekeuhasimyeon doemnida. (Wonhasineun seon saegkkalgwa gulggie chekeuhasimyeon doebnida.) |
Wŏnhasinŭn sŏn saekkalgwa kulkie ch'ek'ŭhasimyŏn toemnida. | Wēn hasinun sen sayk.kkal kwa kwulk.ki ey cheykhu hasimyen toypnita. | khtf je gu fdf gtf geul llev lae lhvl lu ktu ctu xd je gu msf bauw fu be | dnjsgktlsms tjs torRkfrhk rnfrrldp cpzmgktlaus ehlqslek. |
As a new writing system for Korean
[edit]In the 1920s–1930s various languages of the Soviet Union were switched to the Latin alphabet and it was planned that the language of Koreans of the Far East would be one of them.[32][33] Hanja was deemed too hard to learn, while Hangul was claimed to be inconvenient for typesetting and handwriting. Since removing of Hanja would result in much ambiguity, it was proposed that Chinese words would be replaced by words of Korean origin (compare linguistic purism in Korean). The new alphabet, made by famous Koreanist Aleksandr Kholodovich , who would later make a system of transcribing Korean words into Russian , looked like this:
USSR Korean Alphabet Latin script a ʙ d e æ g h i y k kh l r m n ng o ө ə p ph s t th u z Hangul ㅏ ㅂ ㄷ ㅔ ㅐ ㄱ ㅎ ㅣ ㅡ ㄱ ㅋ ㄹ ㄹ ㅁ ㄴ ㅇ ㅗ ㅚ ㅓ ㅂ ㅍ ㅅ ㄷ ㅌ ㅜ ㅅ
Lowercase ʙ was commonly used in Soviet Roman-derived alphabets due to some alphabets having a letter similar to b with a different purpose. The usage of only lowercase letters was also not unusual, as it was the Latin alphabet of Adyghe language, for example.
Some words written in the Soviet Latin alphabet: gu lli, nongdhion haggio, nong ʙ, zængsan, gugga diaʙondiyi.
The alphabet saw criticism from Koreans and was never put into use.
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^ English title of work was Translation of a comparative Vocabulary of the Chinese, Corean and Japanese, to Which is Added the thousand Character Classic, in Chinese and Corean, the Whole Accompanied by Copious Indexes of All the Chinese and English Words Occurring in the Work. It was a translation of an 18th century text by the Joseon government agency Bureau of Interpreters.[6]
- ^ a b c d The first alternative is used before a vowel; the second is used elsewhere.
- ^ a b c d e f Nothing in syllable-initial position, ng syllable-finally.
References
[edit]- ^ "2005년까지 연차적으로 도로표지판을 바꾸는 데 5000억~6000억원이 들고". Monthly Chosun. 2000-09-01. Retrieved 2019-05-22.
- ^ 김세중 (May 2001). "로마자 표기법의 이해 – 로마자 표기와 붙임표(-)" [Understanding the romanization system – Romanization and hyphen] (in Korean). New Korean News (새국어소식).
붙임표를 생략하면 한 로마자 표기가 두 가지로 발음될 수 있는데도 붙임표 사용을 강제하지 않은 데는 그만한 이유가 있다. 우선 붙임표는 대단히 눈에 거슬리는 기호라는 점이다. '강원'을 Gang-won으로 하기보다는 Gangwon으로 하는 것이 시각적으로 더 편안하다. 그러나 더 중요한 것은 표기와 발음은 완벽하게 일치하지 않는다는 사실이다. 어떤 언어든지 표기가 발음을 정확하게 반영하지는 않는다. 국어의 '말〔馬〕'은 모음이 짧고 '말〔言〕'은 모음이 길지만 똑같이 '말'로 적는다. 영어에서 lead(이끌다)는 발음이 [li:d]이고 lead(납)은 [led]이지만 표기는 같다. 로마자 표기라고 예외는 아니다. 로마자 표기로 발음을 완벽하게 보여 주어야 한다는 생각은 버려야 한다. Gangwon을 '간권'으로 발음하는 사람이 있다면 '강원'으로 바로잡아 주면 된다. 표기가 발음을 완벽하게 다 보여 주는 것은 아니며 발음은 어차피 따로 익혀야 할 부분이 있다. '아에'를 a-e로 쓰는 것을 허용하지만 ae로 쓰기를 더 권장한 까닭이 여기에 있다.
- ^ "ALA-LC Romanization Tables" (PDF). Library of Congress.
- ^ 김용 (2023-07-12). "아버지 성은 'SHIM', 아들은 'SIM'...'헤라클래스' 부자에 무슨 사연이?" [Father's surname is Shim, son's is Sim... What is the story behind the "Hercules" father and son?] (in Korean). Sports Chosun.
심정수는 이주 과정에서 여권 신청서를 작성할 때 실수로 아들들의 성을 'SIM'으로 적었다고 한다. 뒤늦게 실수를 알았지만, 다시 이름을 바꾸기는 어려웠다.
[When Shim Jeong-soo was applying for his sons' passports to go abroad, he mistakenly wrote their surname as "SIM". He later realized his mistake, but it was too late to change.] - ^ a b c d e f Holstein 1999, p. 3.
- ^ Holstein 1999, pp. 12–13.
- ^ Holstein 1999, pp. 1–3.
- ^ a b c McCune & Reischauer 1939, pp. 2–3.
- ^ McCune & Reischauer 1939, p. 2.
- ^ a b McCune & Reischauer 1939, p. 1.
- ^ McCune & Reischauer 1939, pp. 4–5.
- ^ McCune & Reischauer 1939, pp. 5–6.
- ^ McCune & Reischauer 1939, p. 7.
- ^ McCune & Reischauer 1939, pp. 9–12.
- ^ McCune & Reischauer 1939, pp. 20–21, 23.
- ^ Holstein 1999, p. 2.
- ^ McCune & Reischauer 1939.
- ^ Holstein 1999, pp. 1–2.
- ^ "Shibu Shohei System of Korean Romanisation". www.tufs.ac.jp. Retrieved 2024-01-19.
- ^ a b c d e f g J. Fouser, Robert. "Nationalism and Globalism in Transliteration Systems" (PDF).
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires|journal=
(help) - ^ "김복문 로마자 표기법", 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전 (in Korean), 2022-02-08, retrieved 2024-02-27
- ^ "KORDA" (PDF).
- ^ Société des missions étrangères. Dictionnaire coréen-français.
- ^ Société asiatique (Paris, France) (1864). "Aperçu de la langue coréenne". Journal asiatique: 287–325.
- ^ "Charles Dallet, Histoire". anthony.sogang.ac.kr. Retrieved 2024-01-19.
- ^ "Korean Romanization Reference". Archived from the original on September 26, 2009.
- ^ a b Noma, Hideki (2005). "Korean". In Strazny, Philipp (ed.). Encyclopedia of Linguistics. Vol. 1. Taylor & Francis. pp. 579–584. ISBN 978-1-57958-450-4.
- ^ a b "Updates to the Report on the Current Status of UN Romanization Systems for Geographic Names" (PDF). United Nations. 2004. pp. 20–22. Retrieved 30 September 2019.
- ^ a b "Argument for horizontal writing of Hangul" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on March 7, 2014.
- ^ "두벌식 자판", 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전 (in Korean), 2024-05-04, retrieved 2024-06-09
- ^ "Korean Phonetic Keyboard Help". help.keyman.com. Retrieved 2024-06-09.
- ^ Советское языкознание, т.1. Л., 1935
- ^ "Ким Герман.Рассказы о родном языке.Рассказ 4.Неудавшаяся революция в корейской письменности".
Sources
[edit]- Holstein, John (1999). "The McCune-Reischauer Korean Romanization System". Transactions. 74. Royal Asiatic Society: 1–22.
- McCune, George M.; Reischauer, Edwin O. (1939). "The Romanization of the Korean Language Based on Its Phonetic Structure". Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society Korea Branch. 29. Royal Asiatic Society Korea Branch: 1–55.
External links
[edit]- Comparison tables of the different systems:
- Comparison table of ISO TR/11941, North Korean national system (1992), Revised Romanization, McCune–Reischauer, Yale (PDF file from UN Group of Experts on Geographical Names Working Group on Romanization Systems)
- Comparison table of IPA, Yale, McCune–Reischauer, Lukoff, South Korea Ministry of Education, Joseon Gwahagwon, Revised Romanization (PDF file from Glossika Inc.)
- Lukoff's system (simple table)
- Gangmun Romanization
- Online Roman to Korean transliteration
- Another online Roman to Korean transliteration