Dfyjkt

Korean writing systems
Hangul/Chosŏn'gŭl
Hanja
Hyangchal Gugyeol Idu
Mixed script
Braille
Transcription
McCune–Reischauer Revised Romanization (South) Romanization of Korean (North) Kontsevich (Cyrillic)
Transliteration
Yale (scholar) RR Transliteration (South) ISO/TR 11941 SKATS (coding)
v t e

The Revised Romanization of Korean (국어의 로마자 표기법; 國語의 로마字 表記法; gugeoui romaja pyogibeop. op; lit. "Roman-letter notation of the national language") is the official Korean language romanization system in South Korea proclaimed by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to replace the older McCune–Reischauer system. The new system eliminates diacritics and apostrophes in favor of digraphs.

The Revised Romanization limits itself to the ISO basic Latin alphabet, apart from limited, often optional use of the hyphen. It was developed by the National Academy of the Korean Language from 1995 and was released to the public on 7 July 2000 by South Korea's Ministry of Culture and Tourism in Proclamation No. 2000-8, which cites these reasons for the new system:^[1]

• It reduces the confusion caused by the frequent omission of apostrophes and diacritics that plagued the McCune–Reischauer system.


• It is compatible with the plain ASCII text of internet domain names.

Like McCune–Reischauer, it transcribes some sounds as English-speakers are apt to hear them, rather than following Korean phonology. Unlike McCune–Reischauer, vowels are not written consistently.

Features

Basic principles of romanization are:^[2]

• Romanization is based on standard Korean pronunciation.


• Symbols other than Roman letters are avoided to the greatest extent possible.

These are notable features of the Revised Romanization system:

• Vowels ㅓ/ʌ/ and ㅡ/ɯ/ are written as digraphs, with two vowel letters, eo and eu, respectively (replacing the ŏ and ŭ of the McCune–Reischauer system).
  
  • However, ㅝ/wʌ/ is written as wo (not weo), and ㅢ/ɰi/ is written as ui (not eui).


• Unlike McCune–Reischauer, aspirated consonants (ㅋ/kʰ/, ㅌ/tʰ/, ㅍ/pʰ/, ㅊ/tɕʰ/) have no apostrophe: k, t, p, ch. Their unaspirated counterparts (ㄱ/k/, ㄷ/t/, ㅂ/p/, ㅈ/tɕ/) are written with letters that are voiced in English: g, d, b, j.
  
  • However, all of the consonants (except sonorants m, n, ng, and l) are written as k, t, p when followed by another consonant or when the consonant is in final position, as they are neutralized to unreleased stops: 벽[pjʌk̚] → byeok, 밖[pak̚] → bak, 부엌[pu.ʌk̚] → bueok (but 벽에[pjʌ.ɡe̞] → byeoge, 밖에[pa.k͈e̞] → bakke, 부엌에[pu.ʌ.kʰe̞] → bueoke).


• 
  ㅅ/s/ is written as s regardless of the following vowels and semivowels; there is no sh: 사[sa] → sa, 시[ɕi] → si.
  
  • When followed by another consonant or when in final position, it is written as t: 옷[ot̚] → ot (but 옷에[o.se̞] → ose).


• 
  ㄹ/l/ is r before a vowel or a semivowel and l everywhere else: 리을[ɾi.ɯl] → rieul, 철원[tɕʰʌ.ɾwʌn] → Cheorwon, 울릉도[ul.lɯŋ.do] → Ulleungdo, 발해[pal.ɦɛ̝] → Balhae. Like in McCune–Reischauer, ㄴ/n/ is written l whenever pronounced as a lateral rather than as a nasal consonant: 전라북도[tɕʌl.la.buk̚.do] → Jeollabuk-do
  

In addition, special provisions are for regular phonological rules in exceptions to transliteration (see Korean phonology).

Other rules and recommendations include the following:

• A hyphen optionally disambiguates syllables: 가을 → ga-eul (fall; autumn) versus 개울 → gae-ul (stream). However, few official publications make use of this provision since actual instances of ambiguity among names are rare.
  
  • A hyphen must be used in linguistic transliterations to denote syllable-initial ㅇ except at the beginning of a word: 없었습니다 → eops-eoss-seumnida, 외국어 → oegug-eo, 애오개 → Ae-ogae
    


• It is permitted to hyphenate syllables in the given name, following common practice. Certain phonological changes, ordinarily indicated in other contexts, are ignored in names, for better disambiguating between names: 강홍립 → Gang Hongrip or Gang Hong-rip (not *Hongnip), 한복남 → Han Boknam or Han Bok-nam (not *Bongnam or "Bong-nam")


• Administrative units (such as the do) are hyphenated from the placename proper: 강원도 → Gangwon-do
  
  • One may omit terms "such as 시, 군, 읍": 평창군 → Pyeongchang-gun or Pyeongchang, 평창읍 → Pyeongchang-eup or Pyeongchang.


• However, names for geographic features and artificial structures are not hyphenated: 설악산 → Seoraksan, 해인사 → Haeinsa
  


• 
  Proper nouns are capitalized.

Usage

In Korea

Like several European languages that have undergone spelling simplifications (such as Portuguese, German or Swedish), the Revised Romanization is not expected to be adopted as the official romanization of Korean family names, and few people have voluntarily adopted it. According to a 2009 study by the National Institute of the Korean Language based on 63,351 applications for South Korean passports in 2007, for each of the three most common surnames Kim (김), Lee (이), and Park (박), less than 2% of applicants asked for their surname to be romanized in their passport by using the respective Revised Romanization spelling Gim, I, or Bak.^[3] Given names and commercial names are encouraged to change, but it is not required.

All Korean textbooks were required to comply with the new system by February 28, 2002. English-language newspapers in South Korea initially resisted the new system by citing its flaws, but all later gave in to government pressure. The Korea Times was the last major English-language newspaper to do so and switched only in May 2006.

North Korea continues to use a version of the McCune–Reischauer system of Romanization, a different version of which was in official use in South Korea from 1984 to 2000.

Outside Korea

Textbooks and dictionaries intended for students of the Korean language tend to include this Romanization. However, some publishers have acknowledged the difficulties or confusion it can cause for non-native Korean speakers who are unused to the conventions of this style of Romanization.^[4]

Transcription rules

Vowel letters

Consonant letters

ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ, and ㄹ are usually transcribed as g, d, b, and r when appearing before a vowel, and as k, t, p, and l when followed by another consonant or when appearing at the end of a word.^[2]

Special provisions

The revised romanization transcribes certain phonetic changes that occur with combinations of the ending consonant of a character and the initial consonant of the next like Hanguk → Hangugeo. These significant changes occur (highlighted in yellow):

Phonetic changes between syllables in given names are not transcribed: 정석민 → Jeong Seokmin or Jeong Seok-min, 최빛나 → Choe Bitna or Choe Bit-na.

Phonological changes are reflected where ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ, and ㅈ are adjacent to ㅎ: 좋고 → joko, 놓다 → nota, 잡혀 → japyeo, 낳지 → nachi. However, aspirated sounds are not reflected in case of nouns where ㅎ follows ㄱ, ㄷ, and ㅂ: 묵호 → Mukho, 집현전 → Jiphyeonjeon.^[2]

See also

• Romanization of Korean

References

External links

Look up revised romanization of korean in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikidata has the property: Revised Romanization (P2001) (see uses)

• 
  Romanization of Korean from the National Institute of Korean Language


• 
  Korean Romanization Converter by Pusan National University


• software online: lexilogos words' converter Hangul to Latin alphabet


• Culture Ministry sets guideline for Romanizing Korean names