McCune-Reischauer

McCune-Reischauer is one of the two systems of romanisation of the Korean most usually used (the other being the revised romanisation). An alternative of McCune-Reischauer is officially used in North Korea, while an other alternative was it in South Korea until 2000, date on which it was replaced by the revised romanisation.

Description

The system was created in 1937 by two American, George Mr. McCune and Edwin O. Reischauer. It does not try to transliterate the Hangûl but rather to represent the phonetic pronunciation of the language.

Guide simplified

Vowels

Korean having more vowels than the Latin alphabet does not contain any, the romanisation McCune-Reishauer uses Brève S on the letters O and U and of the regroupings of two vowels to transcribe certain sounds.

simple Vowels:

Note: ㅔ is transcribed “E” after ㅏ and ㅗ.

Diphthongs:

Consonants

With the difference of the vowels, certain consonants have several sounds according to their position in a word or a sentence. Certain successions of consonants are thus transcribed in the McCune-Reischauer system by various Latin letters.

The following simplified table makes it possible to obtain a romanisation of the consonants. It is generally sufficient to transcribe the proper names, but does not cover all the irregularities of the combinations being able to exist in Korean.

This table is read in the following way:

In a word, the transcription of the succession of a consonant at the end of the syllable and another consonant at the beginning of the following syllable is given to the intersection of a line (corresponding to the final consonant of the first syllable) and of a column (initial consonant of the second syllable). For example, in the 한글 term, the succession of the consonants ㄴ and ㄱ are transcribed by G and the complete word by han' gŭl .
to transcribe a consonant located at the beginning of a word or which is not preceded by another consonant, one uses the first line.
to transcribe a consonant located at the end of the word or which is not followed of another consonant, one uses the first column.

The following points must be however mentioned:

a consonant located between two vowels is transcribed by its initial value, except ㄱ by G , ㄷ by D , ㅂ by B and ㅈ by J .
쉬 is transcribed by shwi .
In a general way, G , B , D and J are used if the consonant is voiced, K , p , T and CH if it is deaf. This transcription of the real pronunciation supplants the combinations above.

Examples

simple Examples:

부산 : pusan
못하다 : mothada
먹다 : mŏkta
먹었다 : mŏgŏtta

Examples with assimilation:

연락 : yŏllak
한국말 : han'gungmal
먹는군요 : mŏngnŭn'gunyo
역량 : yŏngnyang
십리 : simni
같이 : kach' I
않다: ant' has

Examples where the pronunciation supplants the transcription:

한자 : han' ch' has (Hanja, character sino-Korean)
외과: oe' k' wa (surgery)
안다: an' you has and its conjugation 안고: an' k' O (in fact, all the verbs ending in - ㄴ다 and - ㅁ다 are transcribed by nta and mta , except for the termination of the progressive present - ㄴ다/- 는다, transcribed by nda or nŭnda )
올해서른여덟입니다: Olhae sŏrŭn' yŏdŏlbimnida.
좋은 : ch' oŭ N (good)

Official alternatives

North Korea

In North Korea, an alternative of McCune-Reischauer is used, where the aspired consonants are not represented by an apostrophe but in their associating a H .

For example, 평안 is transcribed by Phyŏngan . In the original system, it would be transcribed by P' yŏngan .

South Korea

In South Korea, an alternative of McCune-Reischauer was used of 1984 to 2000 with the following differences:

시 is transcribed by shi instead of if
Plus generally, the others syllables begin with a sound HS rather than a S (샤, 셔, etc) are transcribed by HS rather than S . In the original system, this transcription exists only in the combination 쉬, shwi .
an aspiration caused by the assimilation of an initial ㅎ is indicated: 직할시 is thus transcribed by Chik' alshi instead of Chikhalsi .

See too

Internal bonds

Korean
Hangûl
Romanisation revised of Korean
Romanisation de Yale

External bonds

'' has Practical Guide to McCune-Reischauer Romanization '' (handy guide for the romanisation McCune-Reishauer: rules, guides and font faces)
comparative Table enters the various systems of romanisation (Work group of the United Nations on the sytèmes of romanisation, file pdf)

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