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TheManual of Style/Korea (MOS:KO) is a style guideline for Wikipedia articles or content related toKorea.
This guideline is complimentary to the overallWikipedia:Manual of Style. It provides extra guidance for Korea topics that the main MOS does not cover. MOS:KO should not contradict the main MOS; if you believe it does, please post on the talk page. It should also harmonize with other relevant manuals of style, particularlythe Japanese MOS andChinese MOS.
See alsoWikipedia:Naming conventions (Korean) (WP:NCKO), which provides further guidance on how to render the names of Korea-related concepts in English.
Some Korean-language terms have been adopted into the English language. If such a term can be found in at least one majorreliable English-language dictionary (e.g. the famous traditional dictionaries) from a primarily English-speaking country, we consider it an English-language word. For example, "kimchi"[1] and "chaebol".[2]
Sometimes these terms have aWP:COMMONNAME spelling that differs from the output of typical romanization systems. As we are on the English Wikipedia, spell these terms using the most common spellings used in English sources. For instance, "chaebol" and not "jaebeol" (Revised Romanization) or "chaebŏl" (McCune–Reischauer). Also, do not italicize these words perMOS:FOREIGNITALIC. For how to pluralize such words, check what English dictionaries recommend. These words are often not pluralized; e.g. "kimchis" is uncommon.
If a concept is specific to North or South Korea, be specific about which Korea is being referred to; do not only use "Korea" or "Korean" to describe it.
Avoid the use of "Korean", "Korean-American", "Korean-Canadian", "Zainichi Korean", etc in the infobox and lead (often in the§ First sentence) to describe people from North Korea, South Korea, or the Korean diaspora (see below for Korean people of other periods). These labels areethnicities and not unambiguousnationalities (i.e. citizenships). Instead, list nationalities that can be verified to reliable sources. An exception to this is if their ethnicity is significantly related to their notability (MOS:INFONAT,MOS:ETHNICITY).
YKrystal Jung is a South Korean and American singer.[note 1]
NKrystal Jung is a Korean-American singer.For historical Korean people of thecolonial,Korean Empire,Joseon, andGoryeo periods, it is permissible to describe them as "Korean" in the lead, although you should also identify during which period they lived.[note 2] For people of other historical Koreanic states, avoid describing them as Korean; instead refer to them by the state they are primarily associated with.
YYi Hwang was a Korean scholar of theJoseon period.NBidam was a Korean politician of theSilla period. (Do not describe him as "Korean"; instead describe him as a "Silla politician")For birth and death places in article bodies and in variations of{{Infobox person}}, default to the name of the place at the time of birth or death. However, perWP:MODERNPLACENAME andWP:KO-CONSISTENT, do not use the contemporary spelling or name; default to the spelling used in the most relevant article for that place.
For example, for a South Korean person born in 1947 inoccupied southern Korea:
Ybirth_place = [[Busan]], [[United States Army Military Government in Korea|southern Korea]][note 3]Nbirth_place = [[Pusan]], South Korea ("Pusan" was the common spelling for "Busan" untilRevised Romanization was introduced in 2000. However, the common spelling and article title is now "Busan". Also South Korea did not exist in 1947; it was established in 1948.)There is generally no need to list the modern equivalent location of the place inside the infobox.
Ybirth_place = [[Busan]], [[Joseon]]Nbirth_place = [[Busan]], [[Joseon]]<small>(now in South Korea)</small>Do not put the birthplace in the first parentheses of the lead, per§ First parentheses.
Many of the romanization decisions below are explained on the companion essayWikipedia:WikiProject Korea/Romanization of Korean on Wikipedia.
If a Korean term does not have a clearWP:COMMONNAME spelling or translation in English (seeWP:KO-TRANSLATENAME), you must romanize it.
In general, perMOS:NON-ENG, you should use non-English terms sparingly. Korean terms can be used if they significantly add to understanding. E.g. don't write "He drankmaekju", instead write "He drank beer".
When romanizing a term:
| Primary notability | Romanization system | Example | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| McCune–Reischauer (MR) | kwagŏ (과거) |
|
| Revised Romanization (RR) | jeongnang (정낭) |
|
| Yale romanization | itwu (이두) |
For the first time you use a romanized term, you should wrap it in the{{transliteration}} template, with parameters set to indicate which romanization system is being used. This will automatically italicize the term. Subsequent mentions of the term should not be wrapped, and just be italicized. Examples:
{{transliteration|ko|rr|tteokbokki}} →tteokbokki (try hovering your mouse over the term){{transliteration|ko|mr|ttŏkpokki}} →ttŏkpokki{{transliteration|ko|yaleko|ttekpokki}} →ttekpokkiIf the term is a proper noun, you shouldnot italicize. In the transliteration template, you can disable italicization by settingitalic=no.
Except for romanized titles ofWP:KO-WORKS, which should be insentence case, capitalization should generally followMOS:CAPS. Notably for us, if a romanized term is not a proper noun, you should not capitalize it; there may be exceptions based on what is commonly done in reliable sources, however.
Full-width forms of Roman letters (Ａ-Ｚ, ａ-ｚ), Arabic numerals (０-９), certain punctuation (！＂＃＄％＆＇（）＊＋，－．／：；＜＝＞？＠［＼］＾＿｀｛｜｝～￠￤￥￦) and spaces ( ) should not be used; ASCII equivalents should be used instead, even when mixed with CJK characters.
Hangul can be helpful in clarifying what Korean concepts are being discussed in the Latin script. Romanizations can sometimes be identical for different Hangul, beirreversible, or be unorthodox. Furthermore, for English-language terms that are translations or official names for Korean terms, it can be difficult to understand what the original Korean name was, which possibly hinders researching or linking the concept being discussed.
When the main subject of an article is a Korean-language term, you should display Hangul in the first sentence of the lead per§ First parentheses. You can also display Hangul in§ Infobox Korean name.
For any term that isn't the main term of the article, when a romanized or translated Korean term is used for the first time, you should display Korean text for it in parentheses or a footnote using{{Korean}}. If the term already has its own article, link it.
If the term already has its own article, do not provide Korean text for it except for if it adds significant understanding.
YDol hareubang are also calledjanggunseok (장군석).NDol hareubang (돌하르방) are also calledjanggunseok (장군석). (Do not need Korean text fordol hareubang, as it has its own article already)Sometimes, even if a term has its own article, the original Hangul may be worth including anyway. In particular, if discussing etymology:
YBulgogi is compounded of the Korean wordsbul (불;lit. fire) andgogi (고기;lit. meat).NBulgogi is compounded of the Korean wordsbul, which means "fire", andgogi, which means "meat".| Markup | Renders as |
|---|---|
{{transliterate|ko|rr|[[Bibimbap]]}} is compounded of the words {{transliterate|ko|rr|bibim}} ({{korean|비빔|lit=mixed}}) and {{transliterate|ko|rr|bap}} ({{korean|밥|lit=rice|labels=no}}). | Bibimbap is compounded of the wordsbibim (Korean: 비빔;lit. mixed) andbap (밥;lit. rice). |
Hangul should be wrapped in preferably the{{Korean}} template. There aremultiple reasons why Hangul should be wrapped like this. Translations can also be included using the|lit= parameter.
After the first time you display a language label, you should disable subsequent labels in order to reduce visual clutter. In{{Korean}}, this is done by settinglabels=no. An exception to this is if there are other non-English languages in the article; in which case enable labels when helpful. Consider hiding labels if the language is already introduced inline before the text (e.g.The Korean word for restaurant is ''sikdang'' ({{korean|hangul=식당|labels=no}}).).
If you don't need to put Hanja, romanization, or translation right next to Hangul, you can alternatively use{{Lang|ko|...}}.
Do not useitalics orbold for Hangul, perMOS:BADITALICS. The templates{{nobold}},{{noitalic}}, and{{normal}} can be used to remove this formatting in places where it is the default, such as within infoboxes.
You should provide sources for Hangul text, except for if the Hangul is unambiguous (namely if aromanization is perfectly reversible). Avoid inventing your own Hangul spellings for concepts.
In contemporary North and South Korea, Hanja is rarely used. However, it has a number of uses on Wikipedia, especially for concepts that are significant before 1945.
For the main topic of an article, you should display the Hanja for the topic generally only once or twice. For a concept with significance before the division of Korea in 1945, display the Hanja in both the first sentence of the lead per§ First sentence and in the{{Infobox Korean name}}. For concepts mostly significant after the division, display the Hanja only in the Infobox Korean name; Hanja tends to be less important after that time, and we wish to minimize the amount of less important information in the first sentence.
Examples:
Goguryeo is a pre-division concept and Hanja is frequently used for studies on it.
NPark Chung Hee (Korean: 박정희;Hanja: 朴正熙; November 14, 1917 – October 26, 1979) was the third President of South Korea.Park Chung Hee is a person whose notability is mostly after the division, and Hanja is otherwise not particularly important for understanding who he was. Do not provide his name's Hanja in the first sentence, only provide it in the infobox.
For terms that aren't the main subject of the article, follow similar principles to those used for Hangul in§ Gloss. Additionally, if the topic is mostly relevant after the division, consider not displaying the Hanja at all if the Hangul is sufficient for grasping what is being discussed.
Providing Hanja alongside Hangul is helpful for disambiguation, explaining etymology, and for topics relating to time periods where the use of Hanja was widespread.
The principles in§ Formatting Hangul also apply to Hanja.
In general, you should display Hanja and a corresponding Hangul reading together using the{{Korean}} template. If you wish to display only Hanja, use{{lang|ko|put Hanja here}}. We recommend against the use of the parametersko-Hani andko-Hant; dealing with them adds complication for little practical gain.[note 7]
In some cases, only parts of Korean terms and names have corresponding Hanja. For example, a person's name with a native Korean given name: "KimDa-som". In such cases, you can displayKorean mixed script as Hanja:Korean: 김다솜;Hanja: 金다솜. Note that mixed script should match the spacing of the pure Hangul term, per§ Spaces for Hanja.
Do not use hyphens or other placeholder text to indicate when a term has no Hanja, e.g.Korean: 놀아주는 여자;Hanja: ---- 女子. Instead, use mixed script:놀아주는 女子.
While Hangul andKorean mixed script (Hangul and Hanja together) use spaces between words, text written only in Hanja is usually writtenwithout spaces. E.g.Korean: 고속화 도로;Hanja: 高速化道路;RR: gosokhwa doro;lit. freeway; the Hangul has a space while the Hanja does not.
There are differences between Hanja and theChinese characters used elsewhere in theSinosphere that should be reflected on Wikipedia. The following should not be considered Hanja:
Unless particularly relevant (e.g. a person is significantly linked to both China and Korea), there is generally no need to mention Chinese transcriptions or romanizations for Korean terms on articles primarily about Korea, for the same reason that listing a Chinese transcription of U.S. PresidentJimmy Carter's name is not particularly helpful. For example, do not write:Kim Ku (Korean: 김구;Hanja: 金九;pinyin:Jīn Jiǔ).
If you provide Hanja, you must provide a source for it.
Even if no source is known for their Hanja name, sometimes the meaning of a person's name is known; this may be sufficient for inferring what their Hanja are. You should provide a source for the description of the meaning and describe in a footnote ({{Efn}}) how you derived their Hanja name.
For articles about people, if the article title displays family name before given name (as is common inKorean names), you should provide either a{{Family name footnote}} or{{Family name hatnote}}, but not both.[note 8] The family name footnote should be placed just after the bolded mention of the person's name, with no space in between. If the family name comes after (i.e. the Western ordering), neither templates are needed.
| Markup | Renders as |
|---|---|
'''Lee Myung-bak''' ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|l|iː|_|ˌ|m|j|ʌ|ŋ|_|ˈ|b|ɑː|k}}; {{Korean|hangul=이명박|rr=I Myeongbak}}; {{IPA|ko|i mjʌŋbak|lang}}; born 19 December 1941) |
|
'''National Institute of Korean Language''' ('''NIKL'''; {{Korean|hangul=국립국어원}}) |
|
In general, follow this order in the first parentheses. These elements are not all mandatory; see the notes for descriptions of when and how to use each item.
Do not include:
If the parentheses become too crowded, consider putting less important information in one or more explanatory footnotes, preferrably variations of{{efn}} or{{NoteTag}}. We recommend youdo not use normal reference tags (<ref></ref>) for explanatory footnotes. We would like to keep those reserved for citations.
For North Korean topics, the parameter|context=north should be set. If the article topic significantly involves other countries from theSinosphere, consider using{{Infobox Chinese}} instead, which has parameters for Korean and other Sinosphere languages.
If there is another infobox in the article (e.g.{{Infobox person}}), we recommend you merge the name infobox into the other infobox. This is usually accomplished by adding the|child=yes parameter to the name infobox, then adding the name infobox code to a|module= (or sometimes|embedded=) parameter of the other infobox. For the parameter name, check the documentation for the main infobox (e.g.Template:Infobox person#Parameters).
See§ Nationality and ethnicity labels.
Prior to the 20th century, Korea used a number of differentlunisolar calendars (seeKorean calendar). If you use dates from such calendars, do not use Western month names for them. There are multiple reasons for this.[note 17] Instead, describe the month names using numbers:3rd day, 11th month of 1893, notNovember 3, 1893.
For Gregorian and Julian dates, we allow either the month-day-year (e.g.March 1, 1919
) or day–month–year (1 March 1919
) format. Consider choosing either of those formats if the article hasstrong national ties with another English-speaking country that uses that format. Year–month–day (1919-03-01) can be used in tables, infoboxes, and references—if brevity is helpful—but should otherwise be avoided. The date format used in an article shouldbe consistent and should not bechanged without good reason or consensus.
PerMOS:UNIT, prefer the use ofSI units. If other Korea-related units are used in your sources, such as theli (ri) orpyeong, it is permissible but less preferred to use such units on Wikipedia. If you do use such units, you should link to relevant articles about the units and then provide conversions of them to SI units. Currently,{{Convert}} supports conversion frompyeong to other SI units for area.
To express ranges between numbers, dates, and other things, use anen dash (January 1950 – September 1953 or1950–1953). Do not usetildes (January 1950 ~ September 1953 or1950~1953), as is done in South Korea.
PerMOS:INTERWIKI, do not directly link to the Korean Wikipedia in articles. If the topic doesn't have an article on the English Wikipedia, use{{Interlanguage link}}s instead.
N[[:ko:현순|Hyeon Sun]] →Hyeon Sun (misleading blue link; gives impression English Wikipedia has article)If the topic already has an article on the English Wikipedia, do not link to the Korean Wikipedia version at all. If you think the Korean version has information that would be useful on the English version, put the{{Expand Korean}} banner at the top of the relevant English Wikipedia article instead.
It is possible to link to theWiktionary definitions of Korean words and phrases. This typically involves the use of{{linktext}} or an external wikilink, e.g.[[wikt:예]].
Use Wiktionary links for Korean text sparingly. They should generally only be used in the following circumstances:
Do not do the following:
{{linktext|기|다|리|다}} →기다리다. The individual definitions of the characters cannot be used to tell youwhat the overall word means.{{linktext|대학|생선|교회}} is incorrect;{{linktext|대학생|선교회}} is correct.Two or more links in a row are discouraged perWP:SEAOFBLUE.
Lists of family members and family trees should have reliable sources given for them. FollowWP:KOREANNAME for how to render the names of people.
Avoid excessively detailedfamily trees, because ofWP:NOTGENEALOGY andWP:INDISCRIMINATE. If you do give a family tree, default to only giving the immediate family (no in-laws, only biological and adopted parents, spouses, children, siblings). If there is a more distant relative who is interesting, you can consider mentioning them briefly, but avoid this if it does not impact their main notability. If you do so, avoid indiscriminate listing of all the relatives between these two people.
For Korean-language sources, the following practices are encouraged:
script-title parameter (not thetitle parameter) withko: just before the title.trans-title parameter.last parameter. If you'd like to avoid the comma appearing in the name, consider using theauthor-mask parameter as well.| Markup | Renders as |
|---|---|
| 박대로 (2024-11-27).서울역 옆 서계동 재개발…최고 39층 2714세대 아파트 짓는다 [Redevelopment of Seogye-dong, next to Seoul Station... Building 2,714 apartments with up to 39 floors each].Newsis. Retrieved2024-12-01 – viaNaver News. |
| 이성주 (2007).청동기·철기 시대 사회 변동론 [Social Transformation from the Bronze to Iron Ages]. Seoul: 학연문화사. |
ko is sufficient for rendering Korean text appropriately, and there are nuances and exceptions to the subvariants.Hani only should be applied when there's purely Hanja. If anything in the Hanja parameter is not Hanja, including Hangul (§ Partial Hanja) or Latin text, the parameter is inappropriate.Hant is for the Chinese language written in traditional characters (as opposed toHans for simplified characters), not for Korean. In some environments,ko-Hani displays the text as simplified Chinese andko-Hant as traditional Chinese, not as Korean.