McCune–Reischauer

McCune–Reischauer romanization /məˈkuːn ˈraɪ.ʃaʊ.ər/ is one of the two most widely used Korean language romanization systems, along with the Revised Romanization of Korean, which replaced (a modified) McCune–Reischauer as the official romanization system in South Korea in 2000. A variant of McCune–Reischauer is used as the official system in North Korea.

The system was created in 1937 by two Americans, George M. McCune and Edwin O. Reischauer. With a few exceptions, it does not attempt to transliterate Korean text but rather to represent the phonetic pronunciation. McCune–Reischauer is widely used outside of Korea. A variant of it was used as the official romanization system in South Korea from 1984 to 2000. A third system — the Yale Romanization system, which is a transliteration system — exists, but is used only in academic literature, especially in linguistics. During the period of Russian interest in Korea at the beginning of the 20th century, attempts were also made at representing Korean in Cyrillic.

Characteristics and criticism

Korean has phonologically no distinction between voiced and voiceless consonants, but it phonetically distinguishes them. Aspirated consonants like "p' ", "k' ", and "t' " are distinguished by apostrophe from unaspirated ones, which may be falsely understood as a separator between syllables (as in 뒤차기 → twich'agi, which consists of the syllables twi, ch'a and gi). The apostrophe is also used to mark transcriptions of ㄴㄱ as opposed to ㅇㅇ: 잔금 → chan'gŭm vs. 장음 → changŭm).

Critics of the McCune–Reischauer system claim that casual users of the system omit the breves ( ˘ ) over the o for 어 and the u for 으, because typing o or u without the breves is often easier than adding them. This, in turn, can lead to confusion over whether the o being Romanized is 오 or 어 or the u being Romanized is 우 or 으. Casual users also often omit the apostrophe that differentiates aspirated consonants (ㅋ, ㅌ, ㅍ, and ㅊ) from their unaspirated counterparts (ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ, and ㅈ), which can also lead to confusion. Defenders of the McCune–Reischauer system, however, respond that a casual user unfamiliar with Korean can easily approximate the actual pronunciation of Korean names or words even when breves and apostrophes are omitted, although it is still best to include them.

Such common omissions were the primary reason the South Korean government adopted a revised system of romanization in 2000. Critics of the revised system claim it fails to represent 어 and 으 in an easily recognizable way, and that it misrepresents the unaspirated consonants as they are actually pronounced.

Meanwhile, despite official adoption of the new system in South Korea, many in the Korean Studies community – both in and out of South Korea – and international geographic and cartographic conventions generally continue to use either the McCune–Reischauer or Yale system, and North Korea uses a version of McCune–Reischauer. Even within South Korea, usage of the new system is less than universal, as was the case with the variant of McCune–Reischauer that was the official Romanization system between 1984/1988 and 2000.

Guide

This is a simplified guide for the McCune–Reischauer system. It is often used for the transliteration of names but will not convert every word properly, as several Korean letters are pronounced differently depending on their position.

Vowels

Hangul ㅏㅐㅑㅒㅓㅔㅕㅖㅗㅘㅙㅚㅛㅜㅝㅞㅟㅠㅡㅢㅣ
Romanization aaeyayaeŏe*yŏyeowawaeoeyouwŏwewiyuŭŭii
* ㅔ is written as ë after ㅏ and ㅗ. This is to distinguish ㅐ (ae) and ㅏ에 (aë), and ㅚ (oe) and ㅗ에 (oë)
* Korean surname 이/리(李) and 이(異) is transcribed as Yi not I[1] (ex. 이순신 as Yi Sunsin)

Consonants

Hangul ㄱㄲㄴㄷㄸㄹㅁㅂㅃㅅㅆㅇㅈㅉㅊㅋㅌㅍㅎ
RomanizationInitial kkkntttrmpppsss-chtchch'k't'p'h
Final kknt-lmp-ttngt-tktpt
  • The consonants digraphs (ㄳ, ㄵ, ㄶ, ㄺ, ㄻ, ㄼ, ㄽ, ㄾ, ㄿ, ㅀ, ㅄ) only exist in finals. These digraphs are transcribed by their actual pronunciation.
Initial consonant of the next syllable
ㅇ
(†) 		ㄱ
k 		ㄴ
n 		ㄷ
t 		ㄹ
(r) 		ㅁ
m 		ㅂ
p 		ㅅ
s 		ㅈ
ch 		ㅊ
ch' 		ㅋ
k' 		ㅌ
t' 		ㅍ
p' 		ㅎ
h
Final
consonant 		ㄱ k g kk ngn kt ngn ngm kp ks kch kch' kk' kt' kp' kh
ㄴ n n n'g nn nd ll/nn nm nb ns nj nch' nk' nt' np' nh
ㄹ l r lg ll/nn ld ll lm lb ls lj lch' lk' lt' lp' rh
ㅁ m m mg mn md mn mm mb ms mj mch' mk' mt' mp' mh
ㅂ p b pk mn pt mn mm pp ps pch pch' pk' pt' pp' ph
ㅇ ng ng ngg ngn ngd ngn ngm ngb ngs ngj ngch' ngk' ngt' ngp' ngh

† An initial consonant before a vowel to indicate absence of sound.

Basically, when deciding whether g or k, b or p, d or t and j or ch is used, use g, b, d or j if it is voiced, and k, p, t or ch if it is not. Pronunciations such as these take precedence over the rules in the table above.

Examples

Simple examples:

Examples with assimilation:

Examples where pronunciation takes precedence:

For an example of a short text transcribed in the McCune–Reischauer system, see Aegukka, the national anthem of North Korea.

North Korean variant

In North Korea's variant of McCune–Reischauer, aspirated consonants are not represented by an apostrophe, but instead by adding an "h". For example, 평안 is written as Phyŏngan. With the original system this would be written as P'yŏngan.

South Korean variant

A variant of McCune–Reischauer was in official use in South Korea from 1984 to 2000. The following are the differences between the original McCune–Reischauer and the South Korean variant:

The following table illustrates the differences above.

Word McCune–Reischauer South Korean variant Meaning
시장 sijang shijang market
쉽다 shwipta swipta to be easy
소원 sowŏn sowon wish, hope
전기 chŏn'gi chŏn-gi electricity
상어 sangŏ sang-ŏ shark
회사에서 hoesaësŏ hoesa-esŏ at a company
차고에 ch'agoë ch'ago-e in a garage
발해 Parhae Palhae Balhae
직할시 chikhalsi chik'alshi directly governed city[2]
못하다 mothada mot'ada to be poor at
곱하기 kophagi kop'agi multiplication

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/korean.pdf page 13
  2. ↑ 직할시 (直轄市; "a directly governed city"; jikhalsi in the Revised Romanization) is one of a former administrative divisions in South Korea, and one of a present administrative divisions of North Korea. In 1995, it was replaced by 광역시 (廣域市; gwangyeoksi; "metropolitan city") in South Korea.

External links