McCune–Reischauer

McCune–Reischauer romanization ( ) is a romanization system for the Korean language. It was first published in 1939 by George M. McCune and Edwin O. Reischauer.

According to Reischauer, McCune "persuaded the American Army Map Service to adopt he McCune–Reischauer system and through the Korean War it became the foundation for most current Romanizations of Korean place names."

A variant of McCune–Reischauer is used as the official system in North Korea. Another variant is currently used for standard romanization library catalogs in North America. On the other hand, South Korea formerly used yet another variant as its official system from 1984 to 2000, but replaced it with the Revised Romanization of Korean in 2000.

Background

In the 1930s, McCune and Reischauer developed the system together in consultation with Korean linguists Choe Hyeon-bae, , and .

In 1980, Reischauer wrote in his letter that the system was devised at his suggestion because he "found absolutely no uniform system of any sort, and eneeded something for the Korean names that appeared in isstudies on the travels of the monk Ennin". He also wrote that he and McCune designed their system "with only scholars in mind".

Characteristics

The following are some characteristics of the McCune–Reischauer system:
* With a few exceptions, it does not attempt to transliterate Korean hangul but rather represents the phonetic pronunciation.
** Example: (pronounced []) (not *''tokrip'')
* The voiceless and voiced allophones of the Korean phonemes //, //, //, and // are transcribed differently.
** Examples: , , ,
* The apostrophe is used for transcribing strongly aspirated consonants , , , and (, , and respectively), and for distinguishing () from ().
** Examples: ; (cf. )
* The breve is used for the vowels () and (), and diphthongs containing those sounds ( , ; ).

Limitations

McCune–Reischauer employs dual use of apostrophes, with the more common being for syllabic boundaries. Therefore, it may take some time for learners to familiarise themselves with the placement of apostrophes to determine how a romanized Korean word is pronounced. For example, → , which consists of the syllables , , , and .

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 strongly aspirated consonants , , and from the unaspirated consonants , , and , and the vowels and from and . As a result, the South Korean government adopted a revised system of romanization in 2000. However, Korean critics 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.

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

Consonants

Word-initially and word-finally

The heterogeneous consonant digraphs (, , , , , , , , , , and ) exist only as syllabic finals and are transcribed by their actual pronunciation.

Word-medially

The following table is sufficient for the transcription of most proper names.

The following subsections are for cases not covered by the table above, or for cases where the result should be different from the table.

= Any non- syllabic final + syllabic initial

=
In this combination, the syllabic final (except , which is always ) is
# either directly transferred to the syllabic initial position of the next syllable (i.e. replacing the ),
#* Examples: [] , [] , [] , [] , [] , []
## When the syllabic final or (including ) is followed by , palatalization occurs.
##* Examples: [] , [] , []
## Syllabic final digraphs are split.
##* Examples: [] , []
# or neutralized to one of first, and then transferred to the syllabic initial position of the next syllable.
#* Examples: [→] , [→]

= Any non- syllabic final + syllabic initial

=
If the syllabic initial is pronounced
* , they are romanized . When is preceded by , an apostrophe is added between them (i.e. ).
* , they are romanized (not ).

Examples:
* [] vs. []
* [] vs. []
* [] vs. []
* [] vs. () []

= Any syllabic final + syllabic initial

=
Any combination with the syllabic initial is transcribed based on the actual pronunciation, except when the result is [], [], or []; these are treated as (), (), and () respectively.

* Examples: [] , [] , []
* Examples of exceptions:
** ([], but treated as [])
** ([], treated as [])
** ([], treated as [])

= Syllabic final + any syllabic initial

=
Any combination with the syllabic final (including and ) is transcribed based on the actual pronunciation.
* Examples: [] , [] , []

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 original paper also gives McCune–Reischauer romanizations for a number of other personal names:
* Footnotes on page 1: (), (), ()
* Footnotes on page 4: ( ())
* Footnotes on page 20: ( ()), ( ())

Variants

North Korean variant

A variant of McCune–Reischauer is currently in official use in North Korea. The following are the differences between the original McCune–Reischauer and the North Korean variant:
* Aspirated consonants are represented by adding an ''h'' instead of an apostrophe.
** However, is transcribed as ''ch'', not ''chh''.
* is transcribed as ''j'' even when it is voiceless.
* is transcribed as ''jj'' instead of ''tch''.
* is transcribed as ''lr'' instead of ''ll''.
* is transcribed as ''lh'' instead of ''rh''.
* When is pronounced as , it is still transcribed as ''r'' instead of ''n''.
* and are differentiated by a hyphen.
** But when ''ng'' is followed by ''y'' or ''w'', 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. ''An Pok Chŏl''). Syllables in a native Korean name are joined without syllabic division (e.g. ''Kim KKotpuni'').
** However, it is not really possible to follow this rule. See the section below.

The following table illustrates the differences above.

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:
* was written as ''shi'' instead of the original system's . When is followed by , it is realized as (similar to English (''sh'' as in ''show'')) instead of . The original system uses ''sh'' only in , as .
* was written as ''wo'' instead of the original system's . Because the diphthong ''w'' ( or as a semivowel) + ''o'' () does not exist in Korean phonology, the South Korean government omitted the breve in .
* Hyphens were used to distinguish between and , between and , and between and in this variant system, instead of the apostrophes and ''ë'' in the original version. Therefore, apostrophes were used only for aspiration marks and ''ë'' was not used in the South Korean system.
* was written as ''lh'' instead of .
* Assimilation-induced aspiration by a syllabic initial was indicated. is written as in the original system and as ''k'' in the South Korean variant.
* In personal names, each syllable in a given name was separated by a hyphen. The consonants , , , and right after a hyphen were transcribed using the voiceless letter (''k'', ''t'', ''p'', and ''ch'' respectively) even when they are voiced (e.g. ''Namgung Tong-cha''). But a hyphen can be omitted in non-Sino-Korean names (e.g. ''Han Hana'').
** However, it is not really possible to follow this rule. See the section below.

The following table illustrates the differences above.

ALA-LC variant

The ALA-LC romanization of Korean (2009) is currently used for standard romanization library catalogs in North America. It is based on but deviates from McCune–Reischauer. The following are some differences between the original McCune–Reischauer and the ALA-LC variant:
* Unlike the original McCune–Reischauer, it addresses word division in 29 pages of detail.
** A postposition (or particle) is separated from its preceding word, even though the original McCune–Reischauer paper explicitly states that this should not be done.
* // + // is written as ''ts'' instead of ''ss''.
* The surname is written as ''Yi'' instead of '.
* For given names:
** 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 (e.g. ''Yi Sŏng-min''). The original McCune–Reischauer paper explicitly states that this also should not be done.
** If a given name is three syllables long or is of non-Sino-Korean origin, the syllables are joined without syllabic division (e.g. ''Sin Saimdang'', ''Kim Satkat'').
** 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, can not only be a native Korean name, but can also be a Sino-Korean name (e.g. 寶濫). In some cases, parents intend a dual meaning: both the meaning from a native Korean word and the meaning from hanja. In fact, ALA-LC admitted that it is not really possible to determine whether a certain given name is Sino-Korean or not.

The following table illustrates the differences above.

The older (1997) version of the ALA-LC rule used for strongly aspirated consonants and for (e.g. ''machangaji''), even though the original McCune–Reischauer paper uses the shape for both. This distinction in the older ALA-LC rule was removed in the new ALA-LC rule above.

Notes

References

Sources

*

External links

* PDF files of th
1939 paper
and th
1961 paper

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)
*

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

{{DEFAULTSORT:McCune-Reischauer
1939 establishments
Romanization of Korean