McCune–Reischauer

In this sign onSeoul Subway Line 8,Chamshil(잠실역) andAmsa(암사역) are romanized withthe South Korean variantof McCune–Reischauer. They would beJamsilandAmsain Revised Romanization.

McCune–Reischauer romanization(/məˈkjuːnˈraɪʃaʊ.ər/mə-KEWNRY-shour) is one of the two most widely usedKorean-languageromanization systems.It was created in 1937 and theALA-LC variantbased on it is currently used for standard romanization library catalogs in North America.

The system was first published in 1939 byGeorge M. McCuneandEdwin O. Reischauer.With a few exceptions, it does not attempt to transliterate Koreanhangulbut rather represents the phonetic pronunciation.

A variant of McCune–Reischaueris still used as the official system inNorth Korea.South Koreaformerly usedanother variant of McCune–Reischaueras its official system between 1984 and 2000, but replaced it with theRevised Romanization of Koreanin 2000.

Characteristics and usage

Under the McCune–Reischauer system,aspiratedconsonantslikek',t',p'andch'are distinguished byapostrophesfrom unaspirated ones. The apostrophe is also used to distinguishㄴㄱfromㅇㅇ:연구is transcribed asyŏn'guwhile영어isyŏngŏ.

Thebreveis used to differentiate vowels in Korean:ㅜis spelledu,ㅡisŭ,ㅗisoandㅓisŏ.

Criticism

Because of the dual use of apostrophes—the more common being for syllabic boundaries—it can be ambiguous for persons unfamiliar with McCune–Reischauer as to how a romanized Korean word is pronounced. For example,뒤차기→twich'agi,which consists of the syllablestwi,ch'aandgi).

In the early days of the Internet, the apostrophe and breve were even omitted altogether for both technical and practical reasons, which made it impossible to differentiate the aspirated consonantsk',t',p'andch'from the unaspirated consonantsk,t,pandch,ㄴㄱ(n'g) fromㅇㅇ(ng), and the vowelsㅜandㅡas well asㅗfromㅓ.As a result, the South Korean government adopted arevised system of romanizationin 2000.However, Korean critics claimed that the Revised System fails to representㅓandㅡin a way that is easily recognizable and misrepresents the way that the unaspirated consonants are actually pronounced.

Regardless of the 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

Hangul	ㅏ	ㅐ	ㅑ	ㅒ	ㅓ	ㅔ	ㅕ	ㅖ	ㅗ	ㅘ	ㅙ	ㅚ	ㅛ	ㅜ	ㅝ	ㅞ	ㅟ	ㅠ	ㅡ	ㅢ	ㅣ
Romanization	a	ae	ya	yae	ŏ	e	yŏ	ye	o	wa	wae	oe	yo	u	wŏ	we	wi	yu	ŭ	ŭi	i

Consonants

Hangul		ㄱ	ㄲ	ㄴ	ㄷ	ㄸ	ㄹ	ㅁ	ㅂ	ㅃ	ㅅ	ㅆ	ㅇ	ㅈ	ㅉ	ㅊ	ㅋ	ㅌ	ㅍ	ㅎ
Romanization	Initial	k	kk	n	t	tt	r	m	p	pp	s	ss	–	ch	tch	ch'	k'	t'	p'	h
	Final		k			–	l			–	t	t	ng	t	–	t	k	t	p	–

• The heterogeneous consonant digraphs (ㄳ, ㄵ, ㄶ, ㄺ, ㄻ, ㄼ, ㄽ, ㄾ, ㄿ, ㅀ, ㅄ) exist only as finals and are transcribed by their actual pronunciation.

Final consonant of the previous syllable + initial consonant of the next syllable

		Initial
		ㅇ1	ㄱ k	ㄴ n	ㄷ t	ㄹ (r)	ㅁ m	ㅂ p	ㅅ2 s	ㅈ ch	ㅊ ch'	ㅋ k'	ㅌ t'	ㅍ p'	ㅎ h
Final	(vowel)3	–	g	n	d	r	m	b	s	j	ch'	k'	t'	p'	h
	ㄱk	g	kk	ngn	kt	ngn	ngm	kp	ks	kch	kch'	kk'	kt'	kp'	kh
	ㄴn	n	n'g	nn	nd	ll/nn	nm	nb	ns	nj	nch'	nk'	nt'	np'	nh
	ㄷt	d	tk	nn	tt	nn	nm	tp	ss	tch	tch'	tk'	tt'	tp'	th
	ㄹl	r	lg	ll	ld4	ll	lm	lb	ls	lj4	lch'	lk'	lt'	lp'	rh
	ㅁm	m	mg	mn	md	mn	mm	mb	ms	mj	mch'	mk'	mt'	mp'	mh
	ㅂp	b	pk	mn	pt	mn	mm	pp	ps	pch	pch'	pk'	pt'	pp'	ph
	ㅇng	ng	ngg	ngn	ngd	ngn	ngm	ngb	ngs	ngj	ngch'	ngk'	ngt'	ngp'	ngh

1. ㅇis an initial consonant before a vowel to indicate the absence of sound.
2. 쉬is romanizedshwi.
3. When the previous syllable ends in a vowel (for example,아주is romanizedaju,notachu).
4. In Sino-Korean words,ltandlch,respectively.

Forㄱ,ㄷ,ㅂ,andㅈ,the lettersg,d,b,orjare used if voiced,k,t,p,orchotherwise. Pronunciations such as those take precedence over the rules in the table above.

Examples

• Voiceless/voiced consonants
  • 가구kagu
  • 등대tŭngdae
  • 반복panbok
  • 주장chujang
• The initial consonantㅇis disregarded in romanization, since it is only used in order to indicate the absence of sound.
  • 국어(pronounced [구거])kugŏ(notkukŏ)
  • 믿음(pronounced [미듬])midŭm(notmitŭm)
  • 법인(pronounced [버빈])pŏbin(notpŏpin)
  • 촬영(pronounced [촤령])ch'waryŏng(notch'walyŏng)
• rvs.l
  • r
    • Between two vowels:가로karo,필요p'iryo
    • Before initialㅎh:발해Parhae,실험sirhŏm
  • l
    • Before a consonant (except before initialㅎh), or at the end of a word:날개nalgae,구별kubyŏl,결말kyŏlmal
    • ㄹㄹis written asll:빨리ppalli,저절로chŏjŏllo
• Consonant assimilations
  • 독립(pronounced [동닙])tongnip
  • 법률(pronounced [범뉼])pŏmnyul
  • 않다(pronounced [안타])ant'a
  • 맞히다(pronounced [마치다])mach'ida
• Palatalizations
  • 미닫이(pronounced [미다지])midaji
  • 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-,and-ㅂㅎ-are written askh,th,andph,respectively, even though they are pronounced the same asㅋ(k'),ㅌ(t'), andㅍ(p').
  • 속히(pronounced [소키])sokhi
  • 못하다(pronounced [모타다])mothada
  • 곱하기(pronounced [고파기])kophagi
• When a plain consonant (ㄱ,ㄷ,ㅂ,ㅅ,orㅈ) is pronounced as a tensed consonant (ㄲ,ㄸ,ㅃ,ㅆ,orㅉ) in the middle of a word, it is written ask,t,p,s,orch,respectively, even though it is pronounced the same asㄲ(kk),ㄸ(tt),ㅃ(pp),ㅆ(ss), orㅉ(tch).
  • 태권도(pronounced [태꿘도])t'aekwŏndo(cf.대궐(pronounced [대궐])taegwŏl)
  • 손등(pronounced [손뜽])sontŭng(cf.전등(pronounced [전등])chŏndŭng)
  • 문법(pronounced [문뻡])munpŏp(cf.맨발(pronounced [맨발])maenbal)
  • 국수(pronounced [국쑤])kuksu
  • 한자(Chữ Hán,pronounced [한짜])hancha(cf.환자(pronounced [환자])hwanja)

Personal names

The rules stated above are also applied in personal names, except between a surname and a given name. A surname and a given name are separated by a space, but multiple syllables within a surname or within a given name are joined without hyphens or spaces.

The original 1939 paper states the following:

The Romanization of Proper Names and Titles

Proper names like words should not be divided into syllables, as has often been done in the past. For example, the geographic term quang châu should be romanized Kwangju. Irregularities occurring in proper names such as in P'yŏngyang Bình Nhưỡng which is colloquially pronounced P'iyang or P'eyang, should usually be ignored in romanizations intended for scholarly use.

Personal names demand special consideration. As in China, the great majority of surnames are monosyllables representing a single character, while a few are two character names. The given name, which follows the surname, usually has two characters but sometimes only one. In both two character surnames and two character given names the general rules of euphonic change should be observed, and the two syllables should be written together.

The problem of the euphonic changes between a surname and given name or title is very difficult. A man known as Paek Paksa백 박사(Dr. Paek) might prove to have the full name of Paeng Nakchun백낙준because of the assimilation of the finalkof his surname and the initialnof his given name. The use in romanization of both Dr. Paek and Paeng Nakchun for the same person would result in considerable confusion. Therefore it seems best for romanizations purposes to disregard euphonic changes between surnames and given names or titles, so that the above name should be romanized Paek Nakchun.

For ordinary social use our romanization often may not prove suitable for personal names. Even in scholarly work there are also a few instances of rather well-established romanizations for proper names which might be left unchanged, just as the names of some of the provinces of China still have traditional romanizations not in accord with theWade–Gilessystem. There is, for example, Seoul, which some may prefer to the Sŏul of our system. Another very important example is Lý, the surname of the kings of the last Korean dynasty and still a very common Korean surname. Actually it is pronounced in the standard dialect and should be romanizedI,but some may prefer to retain the older romanization,Yi,because that is already the familiar form. In any case the other romanizations of Lý,RiandLi,should not be used.

The original paper also gives McCune–Reischauer romanizations for a number of other personal names:

• Footnotes on page 1:Ch'oe Hyŏnbae(최현배),Chŏng Insŏp(정인섭),Kim Sŏn'gi(김선기)
• Footnotes on page 4:Ch'oe Namsŏn( thôi nam thiện (최남선))
• Footnotes on page 20:Kim Yongun( kim long vân (김용운)),O Sejun( Ngô thế 𤀹 (오세준))

Variants

North Korean variant

Main article:Romanization of Korean (North)

A variant of McCune–Reischauer is currently in official use inNorth Korea.The following are the differences between the original McCune–Reischauer and the North Korean variant:

• Aspirated consonants are represented by adding anhinstead of an apostrophe.
  • However,ㅊis transcribed asch,notchh.
• ㅈis transcribed asjeven when it is voiceless.
• ㅉis transcribed asjjinstead oftch.
• ㄹㄹis transcribed aslrinstead ofll.
• ㄹㅎis transcribed aslhinstead ofrh.
• Whenㄹis pronounced asㄴ,it is still transcribed asrinstead ofn.
• ㄴㄱandㅇㅇare differentiated by a hyphen.
  • But whenngis followed byyorw,a hyphen is not used, like the original system.
• In personal names, each syllable in a Sino-Korean given name is separated by a space with the first letter of each syllable capitalized (e.g.안복철An Pok Chŏl). Syllables in a native Korean name are joined without syllabic division (e.g.김꽃분이Kim KKotpuni).
  • However, it is not really possible to follow this rule because a certain name written in hangul can be a native Korean name, or a Sino-Korean name, or even both. For example,보람cannot only be a native Korean name,but can also be a Sino-Korean name (e.g. Bảo lạm ).In some cases, parents intend a dual meaning: both the meaning from a native Korean word and the meaning fromhanja.

The following table illustrates the differences above.

Hangul	McCune–Reischauer	North Korean variant	Meaning
편지	p'yŏnji	phyŏnji	letter (message)
주체	Chuch'e	Juche	Juche
안쪽	antchok	anjjok	inside
빨리	ppalli	ppalri	quickly
발해	Parhae	Palhae	Balhae
목란	mongnan	mongran	Magnolia sieboldii
연구	yŏn'gu	yŏn-gu	research, study
영어	yŏngŏ	yŏng-ŏ	English language
안복철	An Pokch'ŏl	An Pok Chŏl	personal name (surname안,given name복철)
렬도	ryŏlto	ryŏldo	archipelago

South Korean variant

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

• 시was written asshiinstead of the original system'ssi.Whenㅅis followed byㅣ,it is realized as the[ɕ]sound (similar to the English[ʃ]sound (shas inshow)) instead of the normal[s]sound. The original system deploysshonly in the combination쉬,asshwi.
• ㅝwas written aswoinstead of the original system'swŏin this variant. Because the diphthongw(ㅗorㅜas asemivowel) +o(ㅗ) does not exist in Korean phonology, the South Korean government omitted a breve inwŏ.
• Hyphens were used to distinguish betweenㄴㄱandㅇㅇ,betweenㅏ에andㅐ,and betweenㅗ에andㅚin this variant system, instead of the apostrophes andëin the original version. Therefore, apostrophes were used only for aspiration marks andëwas not used in the South Korean system.
• ㄹㅎwas written aslhinstead ofrh.
• Assimilation-induced aspiration by an initialㅎis indicated.ㄱㅎis written askhin the original McCune–Reischauer system and ask'in the South Korean variant.
• In personal names, each syllable in a given name was separated by a hyphen. The consonantsㄱ,ㄷ,ㅂ,andㅈright after a hyphen are written ask,t,p,andch,respectively, even when they are voiced (e.g.남궁동자Namgung Tong-cha). But a hyphen can be omitted in non-Sino-Korean names (e.g.한하나Han Hana).
  • However, it is not really possible to follow this rule. See the#North Korean variantsection above.

The following table illustrates the differences above.

Hangul	McCune–Reischauer	South Korean variant	Meaning
시장	sijang	shijang	market
쉽다	shwipta	swipta	easy
소원	sowŏn	sowon	wish, hope
연구	yŏn'gu	yŏn-gu	research, study
영어	yŏngŏ	yŏng-ŏ	English language
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
못하다	mothada	mot'ada	to be poor at
곱하기	kophagi	kop'agi	multiplication
남궁동자	Namgung Tongja	Namgung Tong-cha	personal name (surname남궁,given name동자)

ALA-LC variant

TheALA-LC romanizationof Koreanis based on but deviates from McCune–Reischauer.

• Unlike the original McCune–Reischauer, it addresses word division in seven pages of detail.
  • Apostposition(orparticle) is separated from its preceding word, even though the original McCune–Reischauer paper explicitly states that this should not be done.
• /ㄷ/ + /ㅆ/ is written astsinstead ofss.
• For personal names:
  • The surname이is written asYiinstead ofI.
  • A hyphen is inserted between the syllables of a two-syllable given name only when it is preceded by a surname, with the sound change between the syllables indicated. The original McCune–Reischauer paper explicitly states that this also should not be done.
    • However, if a given name is three syllables long or is of non-Sino-Korean origin, the syllables are joined without syllabic division (e.g.신사임당Sin Saimdang,김삿갓Kim Satkat).

The following table illustrates the differences above.

Hangul	McCune–Reischauer	ALA-LC variant	Meaning
꽃이	kkoch'i	kkot i	flower + (subject marker)
굳세다	kusseda	kutseda	strong, firm
이석민	I Sŏngmin	Yi Sŏng-min	personal name (surname이,given name석민)

Other systems

A third system, theYale romanizationsystem, which is atransliterationsystem, exists but is used only in academic literature, especially in linguistics.

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

See also

• Hangul
• New Korean Orthography

References

• McCune, G.M.; Reischauer, E.O. (1939)."The romanization of the Korean language, based upon its phonetic structure".Transactions of the Korea Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.29:1–55.

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 the1939 paper,and the1961 paper
• Romanization System of Korean: McCune Reischauer (with minor modifications) BGN/PCGN 1945 Agreementat theWayback Machine(archived March 27, 2009)
• Online tool for McCune–Reischauer romanization (with BGN modifications)