McCune-Reischauer
Encyclopedia
McCune–Reischauer romanization 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. Another variant of McCune–Reischauer is used as the official system in North Korea
.
The system was created in 1937 by two America
ns, George M. McCune
and Edwin O. Reischauer
. With a few exceptions, it does not attempt to transliterate hangul
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
.
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 → twich'agi, which consists of the syllables twi, ch'a and gi). The apostrophe is also used to mark transcriptions of as opposed to : → chan'gŭm vs. → changŭm).
Critics of the McCune–Reischauer system claim that casual users of the system omit the breve
s ( ˘ ) 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.
* e – written as ë after ㅏ and ㅗ
† 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.
Double Consonants
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
.
'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.
's variant of McCune–Reischauer, in official use from 1984 to 2000, 시 is written as shi instead of the original system's si, and others like 샤, 셔 and so on, where the pronunciation is deemed closer to a sh sound than a s sound, are romanised with sh instead of s. The original system deploys sh only in the combination 쉬, as shwi.
ㅝ is written as wo instead of the original system's wŏ in this variant. Because the diphthong w (ㅗ or ㅜ as a semivowel
) + o (ㅗ) does not exist in Korean phonology, the South Korean government omitted a breve in wŏ.
Hyphens are used to distinguish between ㄴㄱ and ㅇㅇ in this variant system, instead of the apostrophes in the original version. Therefore, apostrophes are used only for aspiration marks in the South Korean system.
Additionally, assimilation-induced aspiration by an initial ㅎ is indicated, e.g. 직할시 is written as chik'alshi, which under the official system is chikhalsi.
Korean language
Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...
romanization
Romanization
In linguistics, romanization or latinization is the representation of a written word or spoken speech with the Roman script, or a system for doing so, where the original word or language uses a different writing system . Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written...
systems, along with the Revised Romanization of Korean
Revised Romanization of Korean
The Revised Romanization of Korean is the official Korean language romanization system in South Korea proclaimed by Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, replacing the older McCune–Reischauer system...
, which replaced (a modified) McCune–Reischauer as the official romanization system in South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
in 2000. Another variant of McCune–Reischauer is used as the official system in North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
.
The system was created in 1937 by two America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
ns, George M. McCune
George M. McCune
George McAfee "Mac" McCune was co-developer, with Edwin O. Reischauer, of the McCune-Reischauer romanization of Korean. He was born in P'yŏngyang as the son of an American educational missionary, George Shannon McCune and received his elementary education in Korea...
and Edwin O. Reischauer
Edwin O. Reischauer
Edwin Oldfather Reischauer was the leading U.S. educator and noted scholar of the history and culture of Japan, and of East Asia. From 1961–1966, he was the U.S. ambassador to Japan.-Education and academic life:...
. With a few exceptions, it does not attempt to transliterate hangul
Hangul
Hangul,Pronounced or ; Korean: 한글 Hangeul/Han'gŭl or 조선글 Chosŏn'gŭl/Joseongeul the Korean alphabet, is the native alphabet of the Korean language. It is a separate script from Hanja, the logographic Chinese characters which are also sometimes used to write Korean...
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
Yale Romanization
The Yale romanizations are four systems created at Yale University for romanizing the four East Asian languages of Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, and Japanese...
system, which is a transliteration
Transliteration
Transliteration is a subset of the science of hermeneutics. It is a form of translation, and is the practice of converting a text from one script into another...
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
Kontsevich system
The Kontsevich system for the Cyrillization of the Korean language was created by the Russian scholar Lev Kontsevitch on the basis of the earlier system designed by Aleksandr Kholodovich...
.
Characteristics and criticism
The McCune–Reischauer system is friendly to Westerners. For example, Korean has phonologicallyPhonology
Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...
no distinction between voiced
Voice (phonetics)
Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless or voiced. The term, however, is used to refer to two separate concepts. Voicing can refer to the articulatory process in which the vocal cords vibrate...
and voiceless consonants, but it phonetically
Phonetics
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that comprises the study of the sounds of human speech, or—in the case of sign languages—the equivalent aspects of sign. It is concerned with the physical properties of speech sounds or signs : their physiological production, acoustic properties, auditory...
distinguishes them. Aspirated
Aspiration (phonetics)
In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. To feel or see the difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, one can put a hand or a lit candle in front of one's mouth, and say pin ...
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 → twich'agi, which consists of the syllables twi, ch'a and gi). The apostrophe is also used to mark transcriptions of as opposed to : → chan'gŭm vs. → changŭm).
Critics of the McCune–Reischauer system claim that casual users of the system omit the breve
Breve
A breve is a diacritical mark ˘, shaped like the bottom half of a circle. It resembles the caron , but is rounded, while the caron has a sharp tip...
s ( ˘ ) 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 very useful for the transliteration of names but will not convert every word properly, as several Korean letters are pronounced differently depending on their position.Vowels
| 모음 | ㅏ | ㅑ | ㅓ | ㅕ | ㅗ | ㅛ | ㅜ | ㅠ | ㅡ | ㅣ | ㅘ | ㅝ | ㅐ | ㅔ | ㅚ | ㅟ | ㅢ | ㅙ | ㅞ | ㅒ | ㅖ |
| Vowel | a | ya | ŏ | yŏ | o | yo | u | yu | ŭ | i | wa | wŏ | ae | e * | oe | wi | ŭi | wae | we | yae | ye |
Consonants
| Initial consonant of the next syllable | |||||||||||||||
| ㅇ (†) | ㄱ K | ㄴ N | ㄷ T | ㄹ (R) | ㅁ M | ㅂ P | ㅅ S | ㅈ CH/J | ㅊ CH' | ㅋ K' | ㅌ T' | ㅍ P' | ㅎ H |
||
| Final consonant |
ㅇ NG | NG | NGG | NGN | NGD | NGN | NGM | NGB | NGS | NGJ | NGCH' | NGK' | NGT' | NGP' | NGH |
| ㄱ K | G | KK | NGN | KT | NGN | NGM | KP | KS | KCH | KCH' | KK' | KT' | KP' | KH | |
| ㄴ N | N | N'G | NN | ND | LL | NM | NB | NS | NJ | NCH' | NK' | NT' | NP' | NH | |
| ㄹ L | R | LG | LL | LD | LL | LM | LB | LS | LCH | 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 | |
† 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.
Double Consonants
- ㄲ kk
- ㄸ tt
- ㅃ pp
- ㅆ ss
- ㅉ tch
- ㄳ ks(h)
- ㄵ nj
- ㄶ n
- ㄺ lg
- ㄻ lm
- ㄼ lb
- ㄽ ls(h)
- ㄾ lt
- ㄿ lp'
- ㅀ l
- ㅄ bs(h)
Examples
Simple examples:- 부산 PusanBusanBusan , formerly spelled Pusan is South Korea's second largest metropolis after Seoul, with a population of around 3.6 million. The Metropolitan area population is 4,399,515 as of 2010. It is the largest port city in South Korea and the fifth largest port in the world...
- 못하다 mothada
- 먹다 mŏkta
- 먹었다 mŏgŏtta
Examples with assimilation:
- 연락 yŏllak
- 한국말 Han'gungmal
- 먹는군요 mŏngnŭn'gunyo
- 역량 yŏngnyang
- 십리 simni
- 같이 kach'i
- 않다 ant'a
Examples where pronunciation takes precedence:
- 漢字 (한자) hancha (pronunciation: 한짜 hantcha), Sino-Korean characterHanjaHanja is the Korean name for the Chinese characters hanzi. More specifically, it refers to those Chinese characters borrowed from Chinese and incorporated into the Korean language with Korean pronunciation...
(cf. 한 字 (한 자) han ja, "one letter (one character)") - 外科 (외과) oekwa (pronunciation: 외꽈 oekkwa), surgery (cf. 外踝 (외과) oegwa, "outer anklebone")
- 안다 anta (pronunciation: 안따 antta) and its conjugation 안고 anko (pronunciation: 안꼬 ankko) (as a rule, all verbs ending in -ㄴ다 (pronunciation: -ㄴ따 ntta) and -ㅁ다 (pronunciation: -ㅁ따 mtta) are nta and mta except for the present progressive verb ending -ㄴ다/-는다, which is nda or nŭnda)
- 올해 서른여덟입니다. Orhae sŏrŭnnyŏdŏrimnida.
- 좋은 choŭn, good
For an example of a short text transcribed in the McCune–Reischauer system, see Aegukka
Aegukka
"The Patriotic Song" is the national anthem of North Korea.-Etymology:"Aegukka" is also popularly referred to in North Korea by the first phrase of the song, "Ach'imŭn pinnara" or "Let Morning Shine".-History:...
, the national anthem of North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
.
North Korean variant
In North KoreaNorth Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South 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
In South KoreaSouth Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
's variant of McCune–Reischauer, in official use from 1984 to 2000, 시 is written as shi instead of the original system's si, and others like 샤, 셔 and so on, where the pronunciation is deemed closer to a sh sound than a s sound, are romanised with sh instead of s. The original system deploys sh only in the combination 쉬, as shwi.
ㅝ is written as wo instead of the original system's wŏ in this variant. Because the diphthong w (ㅗ or ㅜ as a semivowel
Semivowel
In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel is a sound, such as English or , that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary rather than as the nucleus of a syllable.-Classification:...
) + o (ㅗ) does not exist in Korean phonology, the South Korean government omitted a breve in wŏ.
Hyphens are used to distinguish between ㄴㄱ and ㅇㅇ in this variant system, instead of the apostrophes in the original version. Therefore, apostrophes are used only for aspiration marks in the South Korean system.
Additionally, assimilation-induced aspiration by an initial ㅎ is indicated, e.g. 직할시 is written as chik'alshi, which under the official system is chikhalsi.
External links
- Korean McCune–Reischauer Romanization Dictionary
- 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 the
- 1939 paper, and the
- 1961 paper
- Romanization System of Korean: McCune Reischauer (with minor modifications) BGN/PCGN 1945 Agreement
- Online tool for McCune–Reischauer romanization (with BGN modifications)