McCune–Reischauer

McCune–Reischauer romanization /məˈkuːn ˈraɪ.ʃaʊ.ər/ 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. A variant of McCune–Reischauer is used as the official system in North Korea.

The system was created in 1937 by George M. McCune and Edwin O. Reischauer. With a few exceptions, it does not attempt to transliterate Korean text but rather to represent the phonetic pronunciation. McCune–Reischauer is widely used outside 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.

Characteristics and criticism

Korean has phonologically 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 뒤차기 → twich'agi, which consists of the syllables twi, ch'a and gi). The apostrophe is also used to mark transcriptions of ㄴㄱ as opposed to ㅇㅇ: 잔금 → chan'gŭm vs. 장음 → changŭm).

Critics of the McCune–Reischauer system claim that casual users of the system omit the breves ( ˘ ) 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 often used for the transliteration of names but will not convert every word properly, as several Korean letters are pronounced differently depending on their position.

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

* ㅔ is written as ë after ㅏ and ㅗ. This is to distinguish ㅐ (ae) and ㅏ에 (aë), and ㅚ (oe) and ㅗ에 (oë)

* Korean surname 이/리(李) and 이(異) is transcribed as Yi not I (ex. 이순신 as Yi Sunsin)

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	k	n	t	-	l	m	p	-	t	t	ng	t	-	t	k	t	p	-

• The consonants digraphs (ㄳ, ㄵ, ㄶ, ㄺ, ㄻ, ㄼ, ㄽ, ㄾ, ㄿ, ㅀ, ㅄ) only exist in finals. These digraphs are transcribed by their actual pronunciation.

		Initial consonant of the next syllable
		ㅇ (†)	ㄱ k	ㄴ n	ㄷ t	ㄹ (r)	ㅁ m	ㅂ p	ㅅ s	ㅈ ch	ㅊ ch'	ㅋ k'	ㅌ t'	ㅍ p'	ㅎ h
Final consonant	ㄱ k	g	kk	ngn	kt	ngn	ngm	kp	ks	kch	kch'	kk'	kt'	kp'	kh
	ㄴ n	n	n'g	nn	nd	ll/nn	nm	nb	ns	nj	nch'	nk'	nt'	np'	nh
	ㄷ t	d	tk	nn	tt	nn	nm	tp	ts	tch	tch'	tk'	tt'	tp'	th
	ㄹ l	r	lg	ll/nn	ld	ll	lm	lb	ls	lj	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
	ㅇ ng	ng	ngg	ngn	ngd	ngn	ngm	ngb	ngs	ngj	ngch'	ngk'	ngt'	ngp'	ngh

† 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.

Examples

Simple examples:

• 부산 Pusan
• 못하다 mothada (pronunciation: 모타다: mot'ada)
• 먹다 mŏkta (pronunciation: 먹따: mŏktta)
• 먹었다 mŏgŏtta (pronunciation: 머걷따)

Examples with assimilation:

• 연락 yŏnrak (pronunciation: 열락: yŏllak)
• 한국말 Han'gukmal (pronunciation: 한궁말: Han'gungmal)
• 먹는군요 mŏknŭn'gunyo (pronunciation: 멍는군뇨: mŏngnŭn'gunnyo)
• 역량 yŏgryang (pronunciation: 영냥: yŏngnyang)
• 십리 sipri (pronunciation: 심니: simni)
• 같이 kat'i (pronunciation: 가치: kach'i)
• 않다 anhta (pronunciation: 안타: ant'a)

Examples where pronunciation takes precedence:

• 漢字 (한자) hancha (pronunciation: 한짜 hanccha), Sino-Korean character (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")
• 鐵道 (철도) ch'ŏlto, railway (pronunciation: 철또) (cf. ~도 ~do, "~ too/either". for example, 鐵도 (철도, iron too/either) is ch'ŏldo)
• 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. Olhae sŏrŭnnyŏdŏlbipnida. (pronunciation: 올해 서른녀덜빔니다: Olhae sŏrŭnnyŏdŏlbimnida, but 올해 서른녀더림니다: Olhae sŏrŭnnyŏdŏrimnida is also common)
• 좋은 chohŭn, good (pronunciation: 조은: choŭn)

North Korean variant

In 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.

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:

• 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 /ʃ/ sound than a /s/ sound, are romanised with sh instead of s. The original system deploys sh only in the combination 쉬, as shwi. (ex: 신도림 -> Shindorim)
• 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. (ex: 수원: Suwon)
• Hyphens are used to distinguish between ㄴㄱ and ㅇㅇ, between ㅏ에 and ㅐ, and between ㅗ에 and ㅚ in this variant system, instead of the apostrophes and ë in the original version. Therefore, apostrophes are used only for aspiration marks and ë is not used in the South Korean system.
• When ㄹ is followed by ㅎ, the ㄹ is written as l in the South Korean variant. Under the original McCune-Reischauer system, it is written as r.
• Assimilation-induced aspiration by an initial ㅎ is indicated. ㄱㅎ is written as kh in the original McCune-Reischauer system and as k' in the South Korean variant.

The following table illustrates the differences above.

Word	McCune–Reischauer	South Korean variant	Meaning
시장	sijang	shijang	market
쉽다	shwipta	swipta	to be easy
소원	sowŏn	sowon	wish, hope
전기	chŏn'gi	chŏn-gi	electricity
상어	sangŏ	sang-ŏ	shark
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

See also

• Hangul
• New Korean Orthography
• Kontsevich system – Cyrillization of Korean
• List of Korea-related topics

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)