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Theromanization of Korean is the use of theLatin script to transcribe theKorean language.
There are multiple romanization systems in common use. The two most prominent systems areMcCune–Reischauer (MR) andRevised Romanization (RR). MR is almost universally used in academicKorean studies, and a variant of it has beenthe official system of North Korea since 1992. RR is the official system ofSouth Korea and has been in use since 2000.
The earliest romanization systems for Korean emerged around the mid-19th century. Due to a number of factors, including the properties of the Korean language and alphabet, as well as social and geopolitical issues, a single settled standard did not emerge. By 1934, there were 27 extant romanization systems, and by 1997, there were over 40.
The following systems are currently the most widely used:
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Possibly the earliest romanization system for Korean was an 1832 system by the German doctorPhilipp Franz von Siebold, who was living inJapan.[6] Another early romanization system was an 1835 unnamed and unpublished system by missionaryWalter Henry Medhurst that was used in his translation of a book on theChinese,Korean, andJapanese languages.[7][a] Medhurst's romanization scheme was otherwise not significantly used.[9] In 1874, the Dallet system was introduced; it was based around French-languagephonology. It was the first to use the digraphseo andeu,[7][10] and the first to usediacritics for Korean romanization; it used thegrave andacute accents over the letter "e".[11] The first system to see significant usage was the Ross system, named forJohn Ross, which was designed in 1882. It saw adoption by missionaries.[9]
In 1897,James Scarth Gale introduced his system in his workA Korean-English Dictionary.[7] This system went on to achieve some adoption; it was reportedly adopted by theHarvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. In spite of this, some scholars found issues with these early systems.[12][7] More systems by Westerners emerged, based on English, French, and German phonology. Japanese scholars also developed their own romanizations for Korean, many of which were built on the work of Siebold and Dallet.[13] In 1933, the first romanization system developed by Koreans, which was appended to theUnified Han'gŭl Orthography System, was promulgated by the Korean Language Society.[14] In 1935,Jeong In-seop [ko] published "The International Phonetic Transcription of Korean Speech Sounds".[7]
Systems continued to be developed to address various perceived shortcomings in other systems. By 1934, according to Japanese linguistShinpei Ogura's count, there were at least 27 extant systems.[15] WhereasHepburn romanization had already become the widely accepted standard for theromanization 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.[16]
The task of developing a standard romanization scheme for Korean was complicated by a number of factors.[12]
Even into the 20th century, there were significant variations in the pronunciation and spelling of the Korean language and Hangul respectively, often due to thedialects of Korean.[17] Attempts were made to standardize the Korean language, but these efforts were made by multiple authorities. Two rivaling societies for standardizing Korean emerged: theKorean Language Society (조선어학회) and theChŏson Ŏhak Yŏn'guhoe (조선어학연구회); they published separate guidances.[18] Eventually, the Korean Language Society's standard became the basis for the standards of both North and South Korea.[19] Other references for spelling included those used in Gale's dictionary, guidances from theGovernment-General of Chōsen, and a French dictionary.[20]
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 ofdigraphs (e.g.eo forㅓ) or by usingdiacritics.[21] Also, in many cases, pronunciation does not exactly match what is written in Hangul; similar phenomena occurs with all other major scripts as well. For example, due tolinguistic assimilation, the stateSilla is written in Korean as신라 (sin-la), but pronouncedsil-la.[22]
Some challenges were social and geopolitical. Reportedly, early scholars often wrote about Korea fromSinocentric or Japanese perspectives; Korean place names were often rendered using pronunciations from the Chinese or Japanese languages. Furthermore, afterKorea went under Japanese rule, the "official" names of many places were considered to be those in the Japanese language.[12] In addition, theJapanese colonial government implemented various restrictions on the use of the Korean language around the mid-1930s; theKorean Language Society was also persecuted in one incident.[14]
Regardless of romanization systems, many Koreans chose and continue to choose to spell their names in Latin script in anad hoc manner. For example,이/리 (李) is variously romanized asLee,Yi,I, orRhee. In some cases, single families romanized their surnames differently onSouth Korean passports. For example, within a single심 family, a father's surname was rendered as "Shim" and the son's as "Sim".[23]
McCune–Reischauer (MR) is a system that was first introduced in 1939, in the journalTransactions of the Royal Asiatic Society Korea Branch.[24][25] It is named forGeorge M. McCune andEdwin O. Reischauer; the two developed the system together in consultation with Korean linguistsChoe Hyeon-bae,Jeong In-seop [ko], andKim Seon-gi [ko].[16][7]
The system has proved controversial with especially native Korean speakers. It had been developed mainly for use in Western academia, and reflected pronunciation rules that many Koreans were not consciously aware of, as they are not reflected in Hangul.[26][27][28] Linguist Robert J. Fouser argued that another point of contention was related to nationalism; some disliked that the system had been developed by foreigners during the Japanese colonial period, and wanted a natively developed alternative.[29]
With 1945 came theliberation of Korea, as well asits division.Both Koreas began to develop separate language standards.[30] South Korea adopted MR in 1948.[7][31] According to Reischauer, McCune "persuaded the AmericanArmy Map Service to adopt [the McCune–Reischauer system], and through the Korean War it became the foundation for most current Romanizations of Korean place names".[32] Just after the 1950–1953Korean War, romanization was seen as a minor concern, compared to improving domestic literacy in Hangul.[30] Meanwhile, romanization systems continued to emerge; by 1997, there were more than 40 romanization systems.[33]
In 1956, North Korea became the first of the two Koreas to design a new official romanization system. This system combines features of the Dallet and 1933 Unified systems. It was revised in 1986.[30]
In 1959, theSouth Korean Ministry of Education [ko] published a romanization system, which has since been dubbed theMinistry of Education system (MOE).[30][34] The system received immediate backlash, mainly from foreigners. Fouser evaluated the system as prioritizing use for Koreans; it had a one-to-one correspondence from Hangul to Latin script, and did not account for the pronunciation changes that Hangul itself did not reflect. The system also tended to produce romanizations that bore superficial resemblance to words in English, some of which were seen as odd or humorous, such asDogribmun (Korean:독립문;RR:Dongnimmun;MR:Tongnimmun), which superficially evokes theribs ofdogs.[35][36] The Ministry of Education met in 1978 and 1979 and drafted several alterations to the system, although these did not come to pass allegedly because of political turmoil around that time.[37][31] Eventually, the South Korean government began considering whether to use a more foreigner-friendly system in anticipation of the1988 Summer Olympics, which were to be held in Seoul.[38][39] Various attempts were made to measure objective and subjective metrics of the various systems, for example how frequently systems deviated from expected pronunciation[40] or which systems produced the most accurate pronunciations by foreigners.[41] In 1984, a slightly revised version of McCune–Reischauer was adopted,[38][39] to pushback from Koreans.[38]
In 1968,Samuel E. Martin introduced a system that has since been dubbed theYale system. The system became widely adopted by the international academic linguistics community, although few others adopted it. Fouser argues that while the system allowed forreversibility, it is "unsightly", is suited to those who already know Hangul, and does not adequately communicate pronunciation, even in comparison to the MOE system.[5]
With the spread ofcomputers and theInternet by the 1980s and 1990s, complaints about MR grew.[42] The breves used in MR are not easily accessible on a standard keyboard. Some took to replacing the breve with alternate characters or simply omitting it altogether; the diversity of practice and ambiguity if breves were not used led to confusion.[42][43] In 1986, theInternational Organization for Standardization (ISO) requested both North and South Korea to work together on developing a standard romanization. The two countries held a series of meetings, during which they failed to reach a consensus.[29]
Some created new systems and others proposed reverting to previous systems.[24][44] In 1991, the South KoreanNational Academy of the Korean Language (NAKL;국립국어연구원) proposed its own new system. Concurrently, Bok Moon Kim producedhis own romanization system [ko].[44] Despite Kim's advocacy for his system, it never saw widespread adoption; some of the romanizations it produced (e.g. "Dongnipmoon") were mocked in the press for seeming humorous.[45] In 1997, the South Korean government began moving to revise or switch romanization systems. The topic was hotly debated in South Korean press and foreigner communities. One point of concern was on the estimated expenses needed to repaint all road signs with new romanizations.[46]
In 1997, the National Academy of the Korean Language System was proposed.[47] It was jointly proposed by the National Commission of Romanization of Korean and theAcademy of Korean Language. The system is transliteral in nature; journalist Choe Yong-shik ofThe Korea Times alleged that the system was designed without the input of non-Koreans and mostly meant for ease of use for Koreans.[48] Under that system,Tongnimmun is renderedDogribmun.[49]
On July 7, 2000, the NAKL andMinistry of Culture and Tourism announced that South Korea would adopt a new system: Revised Romanization (RR).[4] 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.[50]
In a 2020 book, linguists Sungdai Cho and John Whitman argued that RR's lack of diacritics has "helped it gain widespread acceptance on the Internet".[51]
Around the late 1920s to 1930s, theSoviet Latinization movement, which sought to standardize use of variants of theLatin script across the Soviet Union, unsuccessfully attempted to supplant Hangul as the primary script for Korean.[52] Koreans publicly debated whether to Latinize (i.e. use a romanization system in place of Hangul), with some publishing articles in the newspaperSŏnbong.[53] According to an 1931 article by B. K. Pashkov, a 1930 meeting by Korean members of theCommunist Party andKomsomol in Vladivostok concluded with a resolution to Latinize as soon as possible. Meanwhile, Russian scholars and bureaucrats also began proposing the same.[54]
The below plans were debated, with alternatives proposed, including ones by Kim Naksŏn (김낙선) and Pak Yŏngbin (박영빈).[55] Overall, such proposals were never widely adopted, and were often received coldly by Koreans. Around 1934, the overall Soviet Latinization movement began to decline.[56]
The first Soviet romanization scheme was the Maritime Committee romanization scheme, which published in November 1931 by the Maritime Committee based inKhabarovsk. Its Korean name was given asRat'enhwahan Koryŏ kŭlcha ch'oan (라텐화한고려글자초안).[57]
| Latin | a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | ng | o | p | r | s | t | u | j | v | w | x | y | z | ch | kh | th | ph |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hangul | ㅏ | ㅂ | ㅉ | ㄷ | ㅓ | ㅍ | ㄱ | ㅎ | ㅣ | ㅣ | ㄱ | ㄹㄹ | ㅁ | ㄴ | ㅇ | ㅗ | ㅃ | ㄹ | ㅅ | ㄸ | ㅜ | ㅡ | ㅂ | ㅜ | ㅆ | ㅣ | ㅈ | ㅊ | ㅋ | ㅌ | ㅍ |
J and w aresemivowels used before vowels to makediphthongs (e.g.ja forㅑ andwy forㅟ). Y is ashort vowel used after vowels to make diphthongs (e.g.oy forㅚ and йy forㅢ). Anapostrophe (') is used to prevent occurrences ofng that aren't meant to representㅇ from being read this way, for examplechen'ge for천거 (without the apostrophe, ambiguous with청어).[57]
The Moscow romanization scheme was published around the same time as the Maritime Committee scheme in 1931.[58]
| Latin | A | ə | B | C | Ch | D | E | ь | G | H | I | J | K | Kh | L | M | N | O | Ø | P | Ph | R | S | Sh | T | Th | U | W | Y | Z | n |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hangul | ㅏ | ㅐ | ㅂ | ㅉ | ㅊ | ㄷ | ㅔ | ㅓ | ㄱ | ㅎ | ㅣ | ㅣ | ㄲ | ㅋ | ㄹㄹ | ㅁ | ㄴ | ㅗ | ㅚ | ㅃ | ㅍ | ㄹ | ㅆ | ㅅ | ㄸ | ㅌ | ㅜ | ㅜ | ㅣ | ㅈ | ㅇ |
While some diphthongs are represened by single symbols (e.g. Ø forㅚ), others are represented by joining the semi-vowels j and w to other vowels (e.g.jь forㅕ andwj forㅟ).[58]
Koryo-saram O Sŏngmuk (오성묵;吳成默) devised his own romanization system, which is attested to in a surviving 1932 publication entitledFirst Steps in Latinized Korean (라ᄶᅵᆫ화한 고려글 자란이독본;Latinizirovannyi Koreiskii Bukvar’). The system used two letters fromCyrillic.[59]
For example,온 세게 프롤레따리들은 단합하라! was rendered asOn zege proletaridyryn danhab hara! and새 글짜 전동맹 중앙위원회 발행 was rendered asSӘ GRCA ЗЬNDOŊMӘŊ ZUŊAŊWIWЬNHØ BARHӘŊ.[59]
O's proposal was approved and published by the All-Union Central Committee for the New Alphabet in Moscow. However, it was likely rejected at some point afterwards.[55]
Aleksandr Kholodovich [ru] proposed the following romanization scheme in 1935:[60]
| 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 | ㄲ | ㅋ | ᄙ | ㄹ | ㅁ | ㄴ | ㅇ | ㅗ | ㅚ | ㅓ | ㅃ | ㅍ | ㅆ | ㄸ | ㅌ | ㅜ | ㅅ |
| Hangul | IPA | RR | MR | Yale | DPRK | USSR | KORDA | Shibu | Han | Lukoff | Mahngun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ㅁ | /m/ | m | m | m | m | m | m | m | m | m | m |
| ㅂ | /p/ | b/p[b] | p/b | p | p | b | b | b | b | p | b |
| ㅃ | /p͈/ | pp | pp | pp | pp | p | bb | bb | bb | pp | p |
| ㅍ | /pʰ/ | p | p' | ph | ph | ph | p | p | p | ph | ph |
| ㄴ | /n/ | n | n | n | n | n | n | n | n | n | n |
| ㄷ | /t/ | d/t[b] | t/d | t | t | d | d | d | d | t | d |
| ㄸ | /t͈/ | tt | tt | tt | tt | t | dd | dd | dd | tt | t |
| ㅌ | /tʰ/ | t | t' | th | th | th | t | t | t | th | th |
| ㄹ | /l/[l]~[ɾ] | r/l[b] | r/l | l | r | r | r/l | r | l | l | l/r |
| ㅅ | /s/ | s | s | s | s | z | s | s | s | s | s |
| ㅆ | /s͈/ | ss | ss | ss | ss | s | ss | ss | ss | ss | ss |
| ㅈ | /t͡ɕ/~/t͡s/ | j | ch/j | c | ts | з | j | j | z | j | j |
| ㅉ | /t͈͡ɕ/~/t͈͡s/ | jj | tch | cc | tss | c | jj | jj | zz | jj | cz |
| ㅊ | /t͡ɕʰ/~/t͡sʰ/ | ch | ch' | ch | tsh | ch | ch | c | c | jh | ch |
| ㄱ | /k/ | g/k[b] | k/g | k | k | g | g | g | g | k | g |
| ㄲ | /k͈/ | kk | kk | kk | kk | k | gg | gg | gg | kk | k |
| ㅋ | /kʰ/ | k | k' | kh | kh | kh | k | k | k | kh | kh |
| ㅎ | /h/ | h | h | h | h | h | h | h | h | h | h |
| ㅇ | silent //ŋ/[c] | -/ng[c] | -/ng[c] | -/ng[c] | -/ng[c] | ŋ | -/ng[c] | '/q | g | ng | ng |
| Hangul | IPA | RR | MR | Yale | DPRK | USSR | KORDA | Shibu | Han | Lukoff | Mahngun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ㅏ | /a/ | a | a | a | a | a | a | a | a | a | a |
| ㅓ | /ʌ/ | eo | ŏ | e | ŏ | ь | u | e | e | ø | au |
| ㅗ | /o/ | o | o | (w)o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o |
| ㅜ | /u/ | u | u | wu | u | u | oo | u | u | u | ou |
| ㅡ | /ɯ/[ɯ]~[ɨ] | eu | ŭ | u | ŭ | y | eu | y | w | ʉ | u |
| ㅣ | /i/ | i | i | i | i | i | i | i | i | i | i/y |
| ㅐ | /ɛ/ | ae | ae | ay | ae | ə | ae | ai | ae | ä | ai |
| ㅔ | /e/ | e | e | ey | e | e | e | ei | é | e | e |
| ㅚ | /ø/[ø]~[we] | oe | oe | (w)oy | oe | ø | oe | oi | ó | ö | we |
| ㅟ | /y/[y]~[ɥi] | wi | wi | wi | we | ui | wi | ui | uj | wi | wi |
| ㅢ | /ɰi/[ɰi]~[ɨ̯i]~[i] | ui | ŭi | uy | ŭi | yi | ui | yi | wj | ʉ | ui |
| ㅑ | /ja/ | ya | ya | ya | ya | ja | ya | ia | ja | ya | ya |
| ㅕ | /jʌ/ | yeo | yŏ | ye | yŏ | jь | yu | ie | je | yø | yau |
| ㅛ | /jo/ | yo | yo | yo | yo | jo | yo | io | jo | yo | yo |
| ㅠ | /ju/ | yu | yu | yu | yu | ju | yoo | iu | ju | yu | you |
| ㅒ | /jɛ/ | yae | yae | yay | yae | jə | yae | iai | jae | yä | yai |
| ㅖ | /je/ | ye | ye | yey | ye | je | ye | iei | jé | ye | ye |
| ㅘ | /wa/ | wa | wa | wa | wa | wa | wa | oa | ōa | wa | wa |
| ㅝ | /wʌ/ | wo | wŏ | we | wŏ | wь | wo | ue | ōe | wø | wau |
| ㅙ | /wɛ/ | wae | wae | way | wae | wə | wae | oai | óae | wä | wai |
| ㅞ | /we/ | we | we | wey | we | we | we | uei | ōé | we | we |
| English | Hangul | IPA | RR (RR transliteration in brackets) | MR | Yale |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| wall | 벽 | [pjʌk̚] | byeok (byeog) | pyŏk | pyek |
| on the wall | 벽에 | [pjʌ.ɡe̞] | byeoge (byeog-e) | pyŏge | pyek ey |
| outside (uninflected) | 밖 | [pak̚] | bak (bakk) | pak | pakk |
| outside | 밖에 | [pa.k͈e̞] | bakke (bakk-e) | pakke | pakk ey |
| kitchen | 부엌 | [pu.ʌk̚] | bueok (bueok) | puŏk | puekh |
| to/in the kitchen | 부엌에 | [pu.ʌ.kʰe̞] | bueoke (bueok-e) | puŏk'e | puekh ey |
| Wikipedia | 위키백과 | [yk.çi.be̞k̚.k͈wa̠] | wikibaekgwa (wikibaeggwa) | wikibaekkwa | wikhi payk.kwa |
| Hangul | 한글 | [han.ɡɯl] | hangeulorhan-geul (hangeul) | han'gŭl | hānkul |
| character, letter | 글자 | [kɯl.t͈ɕa] | geulja (geulja) | kŭlcha | kulqca |
| (an) easy (+ noun) | 쉬운 | [ɕɥi.un] | swiun (swiun) | shwiun | swīwun |
| Korea has four distinctseasons. | 한국은 네 계절이 뚜렷하다. | [han.ɡu.ɡɯnne̞kje̞.dʑʌ.ɾit͈u.ɾjʌ.tʰa.da] | Hangugeun ne gyejeori tturyeotada. (Hangug-eun ne gyejeol-i ttulyeoshada.) | Han'gugŭn ne kyejŏri tturyŏthada. | Hānkwuk un nēy kyēycel i ttwulyes hata. |
| Justcheck the line color and width you want. | 원하시는 선 색깔과 굵기에 체크하시면 됩니다. | [wʌn.ɦa.ɕi.nɯnsʌnsɛ̝k̚.k͈al.ɡwakul.k͈i.e̞tɕʰe̞.k͡xɯ.ɦa.ɕi.mjʌntwe̞m.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. |
심정수는 이주 과정에서 여권 신청서를 작성할 때 실수로 아들들의 성을 'SIM'으로 적었다고 한다. 뒤늦게 실수를 알았지만, 다시 이름을 바꾸기는 어려웠다.[WhenShim 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.]
