THE ROMANIZATION OF THE KOREAN LANGUAGE BASED UPON ITS PHONETIC STRUCTURE G. M. McCune, University of California, E. O. Reischauer, Harvard University TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction … … … 1 II. The Vowels … … 10 Simple vowels … … … … 10 Labialized vowels and diphthongs … 14 Yotized or palatized vowels … 16 Long and short forms of the vowels … 18 Irregularities in the pronunciation of the vowels … 20 “Disintegration” in individual vowels … … 21 Assimilation between vowels … … … 22 III. The Consonants … … … 24 Plosive consonants … … … 25 Unvoiced plosives … … … 27 Voiced plosives … … … 28 “Forced” plosives … … … 39 Aspirated plosives … … … 31 Non-plosive consonants … … 32 Nasal consonants … … … 33 Lateral and semi-roiled consonants … 34 Fricative consonants … … … 35 Rules for the Romanization of the consonant letters … 36 The medial glottal stop (sai siot) and irregular assimilation between consonants … … … 43 The consonants in new spelling and their Romanization … 46 IV. Other considerations … … 49 Syllables and words in Romanization … 49 The Romanization of proper names and tit … 52 The simple use of this system of Romanization 53 Charts and Tables Vowel Chart … … … 10 Vowel Diagram … … … 11 Consonant Chart… … … 24 Chart of Plosives… … … 26 Chart of Non-Plosives … … 32 Syllabic Table … … … 56 Chart of Euphonic Changes of the Consonants [page 1] I. INTRODUCTION Although the Hepburn system for Romanizing Japanese is almost universally accepted, and the Wade-Giles system for Romanizing Chinese is used by most English-speaking people, no standard Romanization has been adopted for Korean. This lack has been a handicap to the scholarly study of Korea. For this reason Occidental residents in Korea and native philologists have supported us in our effort to supply this need. These scholars have given us invaluable assistance in carrying out the phonetic studies necessary for the construction of this system.1
1. Write the word in ŏnmun, transcribing it from the Chinese characters if it is a Sino-Korean word. Examples: Sino-Korean word, “museum” 博物館 equals 박물관 Native word, “bowl” is 사발. 2. Romanize each syllable separately according to the Syllabic Table, adding the syllabic consonantal end-ings as given. Examples : 박 equals pa plus k and is therefore pak. This process will give pak mul kwan and sa pal. 3. Correct the medial consonants according to the Chart of Euphonic Changes of the Consonants and then write the syllables together. Examples: pak plus mul gives a medial of k plus m. In the horizontal K column, where it intersects the vertical M column, will be found the correction ngm. Therefore pak mul becomes pangmul. This process will give the words correctly Romanized as pangmulgwan and sabal. This very simple process will prove adequate for almost all Romanization problems, but occasionally there are irregularities which do not come within the scope of these two charts, and for these reference must be made to other sections of this paper. For example, the variation in the value of ㅅ as a syllabic final in the medial position is discussed on page s 44 to 46. The Romanization of the three consonant digraphs, ㄺ, ㄼ and ㄻ, is discussed at the end of [page 55] the section on “Rules for the Romanization of the Ŏnmun Consonant Letters.” Other irregularities are discussed in “Irregularities in the Pronunciation of the Vowels,” “The Medial Glottal Stop (Sai Siot) and Irregular Assimilation between Consonants” and “The Romanization of Consonants in New Spelling.”