The Kontsevich system () is a

Cyrillization Cyrillization or Cyrillisation is the process of rendering words of a language that normally uses a writing system other than Cyrillic script into (a version of) the Cyrillic alphabet. Although such a process has often been carried out in an ad h ...

system for the

Korean language Korean (South Korean: , ''hangugeo''; North Korean: , ''chosŏnmal'') is the native language for about 80 million people, mostly of Koreans, Korean descent. It is the official language, official and national language of both North Korea and So ...

and currently the main system of transcribing and

transliterating Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus ''trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → , Cyrillic → , Greek → the digraph , Armenian → or L ...

Korean words into the

Cyrillic alphabet The Cyrillic script ( ), Slavonic script or the Slavic script, is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking coun ...

. The Kontsevich system was created by the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

scholar Lev Kontsevich () in the 1950s based on the earlier transliteration system designed by ().

Features

Cyrillization systems for Korean were developed domestically in both

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and ...

(where it has been proposed to replace the current script in the past) and

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

; Kontsevich carried out work on the systemization of these rules. In contrast with some systems of

Romanization of Korean Romanization of Korean refers to systems for representing the Korean language in the Latin script. Korea's alphabetic script, called Hangul, has historically been used in conjunction with Hanja (Chinese characters), though such practice has ...

, the transcription is based primarily on the pronunciation of a word, rather than on its spelling.

Consonants

Initial

Final

Medial consonant rules

Some letters are transcribed differently in the middle of a word when following certain other letters.

Vowels

Examples

Notes

Korean personal names are written by family name first, followed by a space and then the given name. As a rule, syllables in given names are not separated.

External links

*
Degrees of Courtesy and Communication Styles in the Korean Language
by K. B. Kurotchenko. *
Entry for Lev Kontsevich on the Institute of Oriental Studies
*
Russian and Latin Transcription of Korean Words
by Lev Kontsevich. {{Cyrillization Korean language

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

Korea–Soviet Union relations