McCune–Reischauer System

McCune–Reischauer romanization () is one of the two most widely used Korean language romanization systems. A modified version of McCune–Reischauer was the official romanization system in South Korea until 2002, when it was replaced by the Revised Romanization of Korean system introduced two years earlier. A variant of McCune–Reischauer is still used as the official system in North Korea.

The system was first published in 1939 by George M. McCune and Edwin O. Reischauer. With a few exceptions, it attempts not to transliterate Korean hangul, but it represents the phonetic pronunciation.

Characteristics and criticism

Under the McCune–Reischauer system, aspirated consonants like ''p'', ''k'', and ''t'' are distinguished by apostrophes from unaspirated ones, which may also be falsely understood as a separator between syllables (as in → ''twichagi'', which consists of the syllables ''twi'', ''chʼa'' and ''gi''). The apostrophe is also used to mark transcriptions of (''n'g'') as opposed to (''ng''): → ''chan'gŭm'' vs. → ''changŭm''). These diverse applications of apostrophes made people confused once omitted. Also, the breve is used to differentiate vowels in Korean. So, if the apostrophe and breve are omitted from this system, it would make it impossible to differentiate the aspirated consonants k,t,p and ch from the unaspirated consonants k, t, p and ch, (''n'g'') from (''ng''), and the vowels 으 and 우 from 오 and 어.

An omission of the apostrophe on the internet and lack of a breve on keyboards were the primary reasons the South Korean government adopted a revised system of romanization in 2000. However, Korean critics aggressively claimed that the Revised System fails to represent and in a way that is easily recognizable and misrepresents the way that the unaspirated consonants are actually pronounced. However, the counterargument for this assertion is that it is impossible to find perfectly matching pairs of letters between the two different writing systems, Latin script and Hangul, and priority should be given to revised system of romanization created by the help of many Korean linguists at the National Academy of the Korean Language over a five-year period than the McCune–Reischauer system created by two foreigners with the help of three Korean linguists over a two-year period during the Japanese colonial era.

Despite official adoption of the new system in South Korea, North Korea continues to use a version of McCune–Reischauer.

Guide

This is a simplified guide for the McCune–Reischauer system.

Vowels

* is written as ''ë'' after and . This is to distinguish (''ae'') from (''aë''), and (''oe'') and (''oë''). The combinations (''aë'') and (''oë'') very rarely occur except in sentences when a noun is followed by a postposition, as, for example, 회사에서 ''hoesaësŏ'' (at a company) and 차고에 ''chagoë'' (in a garage).
* The Korean surnames and are transcribed as ''Yi'' not ''I'' page 13 (e.g. as ''Yi Sunsin'')

Consonants

:* The consonant digraphs () exist only as finals and are transcribed by their actual pronunciation.

::# ㅇ is an initial consonant before a vowel to indicate the absence of sound.
::# 쉬 is romanized ''shwi''.
::# In Sino-Korean words, ''lt'' and ''lch'' respectively.

For ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ, and ㅈ, the letters ''g'', ''d'', ''b'', or ''j'' are used if voiced, ''k'', ''t'', ''p'', or ''ch'' otherwise. Pronunciations such as those take precedence over the rules in the table above.

Examples

* Voiceless/voiced consonants
** 가구 ''kagu''
** 등대 ''tŭngdae''
** 반복 '
** 주장 ''chujang''
* ''r'' vs. ''l''
** ''r''
*** Between two vowels: 가로 ''karo'', 필요 ''p'iryo''
*** Before initial ㅎ ''h'': 발해 ''Parhae'', 실험 ''sirhŏm''
** ''l''
*** Before a consonant (except before initial ㅎ ''h''), or at the end of a word: 날개 ''nalgae'', 구별 ''kubyŏl'', 결말 ''kyŏlmal''
*** ㄹㄹ is written ''ll'': 빨리 ', 저절로 ''chŏjŏllo''
* Consonant assimilations
** 독립 (pronounced 동닙) ''tongnip''
** 법률 (pronounced 범뉼) ''pŏmnyul''
** 않다 (pronounced 안타) ''ant’a''
** 맞히다 (pronounced 마치다) ''mach’ida''
* Palatalizations
** 미닫이 (pronounced 미다지) '
** 같이 (pronounced 가치) ''kach’i''
** 굳히다 (pronounced 구치다) ''kuch’ida''

Exceptions that do not predict pronunciation

* The sequences -ㄱㅎ-, -ㄷㅎ- (only when palatalization does not occur)/-ㅅㅎ-, -ㅂㅎ- are written ''kh'', ''th'', ''ph'' respectively, even though they are pronounced the same as ㅋ (''k''), ㅌ (''t''), ㅍ (''p'').
** 속히 ''sokhi'' (pronounced 소키)
** 못하다 ''mothada'' (pronounced 모타다)
** 곱하기 ''kophagi'' (pronounced 고파기)
* When a plain consonant (ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ, ㅅ, or ㅈ) becomes a tensed consonant (ㄲ, ㄸ, ㅃ, ㅆ, or ㅉ) in the middle of a word, it is written ''k'', ''t'', ''p'', ''s'', or ''ch'' respectively, even though it is pronounced the same as ㄲ (''kk''), ㄸ (''tt''), ㅃ (''pp''), ㅆ (''ss''), or ㅉ (''tch'').
** 태권도 (pronounced 태꿘도) ''t'aekwŏndo''
** 손등 (pronounced 손뜽) ''sontŭng''
** 문법 (pronounced 문뻡) ''munpŏp''
** 국수 (pronounced 국쑤) ''kuksu''
** 한자 (漢字, pronounced 한짜) ''hancha''

Other systems

A third system, the Yale Romanization system, which is a transliteration system, exists but is used only in academic literature, especially in linguistics.

The Kontsevich system, based on the earlier Kholodovich system, is used for transliterating Korean into the Cyrillic script. Like McCune–Reischauer romanization it attempts to represent the pronunciation of a word, rather than provide letter-to-letter correspondence.

Reference

*

See also

* Hangul
* New Korean Orthography

Footnotes

External links

A Practical Guide to McCune–Reischauer Romanization
Rules, guidelines, and font

Comparison table of different romanization systems from UN Working Group on Romanization Systems (PDF file)
* PDF files of th
1939 paper
and th
1961 paper
*

Online tool for McCune–Reischauer romanization (with BGN modifications)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mccune-Reischauer
Romanization of Korean