Sino-Korean남성(男性)(namseong,“male; men”) and여성(女性)(yeoseong,“female; women”) refer to men and women as groups—though pluralized남자들(namja-deul,“the boys; the guys; the men”) and여자들(yeoja-deul,“the girls; the women”) is informally more common for this purpose—or to individual adult men and women in formal or polite contexts.
여성인권운동 ―yeoseong in'gwon undong ―women's rights movement, feminism
The bare Sino-Korean morphemes남(男)(nam,“male”) and여(女)(yeo,“female”) is generally used in formal contexts, especially when referring to each gender as a collective but also for male or female individuals in more legalistic contexts. They are commonly written inhanja even when the rest of the text is in pure Hangul script.
Native사내(sanae,“man”) and계집(gyejip,“woman”) are not as commonly used.사내(sanae) often has a connotation ofmachismo ormanliness, while계집(gyejip) has become offensive and derogatory.
Note that inEarly Modern Korean (1600—c. 1900) and in contemporary Standard North Korean, Sino-Korean여(女)(yeo,“female”) is written and pronounced녀(nyeo), hence녀자(女子)(nyeoja),녀성(女性)(nyeoseong),녀인(女人)(nyeoin).
Modern Korean reading of various Chinese characters in isolation or as the first element of a compound. As the non-initial character of a compound, it is read as려(ryeo).
After a North Korean language reform in the mid-twentieth century, North Koreans always pronounce it as려(ryeo) in all environments.
Modern Korean reading of various Chinese characters in isolation or as the first element of a compound. As the non-initial character of a compound, it is read as녀(nyeo).
After a North Korean language reform in the mid-twentieth century, North Koreans always pronounce it as녀(nyeo) in all environments.
