Revised Romanization of Korean

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox Korean name/auto Revised Romanization of Korean (RR; Korean: Template:Category handler) is the official Korean language romanization system in South Korea. It was developed by the National Academy of the Korean Language from 1995 and was released to the public on 7 July 2000 by South Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in Proclamation No. 2000-8.

Conversion process

The following steps are applied in order to construct an RR romanization from a Hangul string:

1. With some exceptions, swap out portions of the Hangul string to reflect standard pronunciation spellings. For example, swap out "" (jongro) with "" (jongno); the latter spelling is how the former is widely pronounced.
   • Exceptions include the given names of people (keep "", even though it's typically pronounced "") or between syllables that will receive hyphens in the romanization (keep "", despite common pronunciation "").
2. For each syllable, in order from left to right, break the syllable down into jamo (letters). For each jamo (in order, within the syllable, of left to right, top to bottom), refer to either the consonant or vowel table below, depending on the role the jamo is serving. Some consonants are rendered differently depending on whether they are the initial or final character of a syllable; use the corresponding romanization.
3. Some modifications may need to be made to the romanization. For example, a space should be inserted between family and given names, proper nouns should be capitalized, and hyphens should be inserted before administrative units (some of the administrative units and their hyphens can even be removed altogether, as they are optional). There are a number of scenarios where hyphens can optionally be inserted (see Template:Section link), but optional hyphens are discouraged.

Consonants

Hangul
Romanization	Initial	g	kk	n	d	tt	r	m	b	pp	s	ss	—	j	jj	ch	k	t	p	h
	Final	k	k		t	—	l		p	—	t	t	ng	t	—	t				t

, , and are transcribed as g, d, b and r when placed at the beginning of a word or coming before a vowel, and as k, t, p and l when followed by another consonant or when appearing at the end of a word.

Vowels

Hangul																					ㅣ
Romanization	a	ae	ya	yae	eo	e	yeo	ye	o	wa	wae	oe	yo	u	wo	we	wi	yu	eu	ui	i

Examples

• → → annyeonghaseyo
• → (swap with pronunciation Hangul) → → jongnogu → Jongno-gu (capitalize proper noun, insert hyphen before administrative unit particle)
• (person's name; do not swap with pronunciation Hangul ) → → hongbitna → Hong Bitna (insert space between family and given names and capitalize them)

Hyphenation

In RR, hyphens can be either optional or mandatory.

• Optional hyphens are used in two scenarios:
  1. Disambiguating pronunciation (e.g. Hae-undae)
  2. Between syllables of a given name (e.g. Hong Gil-dong)
• Mandatory hyphens are for separating an administrative unit (e.g. Pyeongchang-gun)

Hyphens should not be inserted into the names of geographic features or artificial structures. For example, → Seoraksan and not Seorak-san.

The National Institute of Korean Language has stated that the use of optional hyphens should be discouraged. One member wrote the following:Template:Quote

Linguistic characteristics

The unaspirated consonants , , , and are represented as ⟨g⟩, ⟨d⟩, ⟨b⟩, and ⟨j⟩ respectively. The aspirated consonants , , , and are represented as ⟨k⟩, ⟨t⟩, ⟨p⟩, ⟨ch⟩. These letter pairs have a similar aspiration distinction in English at the beginning of a syllable (but unlike English do not have a voicing distinction); this approach is also used by Hanyu Pinyin.

When placed in the final position, , , and are romanized as ⟨k⟩, ⟨t⟩, and ⟨p⟩ respectively, as they are neutralized to unreleased stops: → byeok, → bak, → bueok; → byeoge, → bakke, → bueoke, → ip, → ibe.

Vowels and are written as ⟨eo⟩ and ⟨eu⟩ respectively. However, is written as ⟨wo⟩, not ⟨weo⟩; and is written as ⟨ui⟩, not ⟨eui⟩.

ㅅ in the syllable-initial position is always written as ⟨s⟩. When followed by another consonant or when in the final position, it is written as ⟨t⟩: → ot (but → ose).

is ⟨r⟩ before a vowel or a semivowel and ⟨l⟩ everywhere else: → rieul, → Cheorwon, → Ulleungdo, → Balhae. is written ⟨l⟩ whenever pronounced as a lateral rather than as a nasal consonant: → Jeollabuk-do

Phonological changes are reflected where , , and are adjacent to : → joko, → nota, → japyeo, 낳지 → nachi. However, aspirated sounds are not reflected in case of nouns where follows , and : → Mukho, → Jiphyeonjeon.

In addition, special provisions are for regular phonological rules in exceptions to transcription (see Korean phonology).

Reversible variant

When reversibility (ability to reliably retrieve Hangul from romanized text) is desired, namely in academic articles, a variant of RR can be applied that allows for a letter-by-letter transcription. For example, would be rendered as doglib in the letter-by-letter transcription, whereas by its normal pronunciation spelling it would be dongnip. In this case, hyphens can be used to denote a soundless syllable-initial (except at the beginning of a word). For example, → eobs-eoss-seubnida.

Background

The new system attempts to address perceived problems in the implementation of the McCune–Reischauer system, such as the phenomena where different consonants and vowels became indistinguishable in the absence of special symbols. To be specific, under the McCune–Reischauer system, the consonants (k), (t), (p) and (ch) and (k'), (t'), (p') and (ch') became indistinguishable when the apostrophe was removed. In addition, the vowels (ŏ) and (o), as well as (ŭ) and (u), became indistinguishable when the breve was removed. Especially in early internet use, where omission of apostrophes and breves is common, this caused confusion. To this end, the system has an explicit goal of using only the 26 letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet.

The system was developed in anticipation of the 2002 FIFA World Cup, which was to be partly hosted in South Korea.

Usage

In South Korea

File:Jecheonstation.jpg

The sign with the name of the railway station in Jecheon — at the top, a writing in Hangul, the transcription in Latin script below using the Revised Romanization and the English translation of the word "station", along with the Hanja text

Almost all road signs, names of railway and subway stations on line maps and signs, etc. have been changed according to Revised Romanization of Korean. It is estimated to have cost at least 500 billion to 600 billion won (€500–600 million) to carry out this procedure. All Korean textbooks, maps and signs to do with cultural heritage were required to comply with the new system by 28 February 2002.

Romanizations on South Korean passports

File:Specimen Personal Information Page South Korean Passport.jpg

A specimen of the identity information page of a South Korean passport, displaying the romanization of the bearer's name (Lee Suyeon) for international legibility.

A modified version of RR is recommended (but not strictly required) by the South Korean government for romanizations of people names on passports. One example of a modification is discouraging romanizations that resemble words with negative meanings in other languages. For example, is recommended to be romanized as SHIN and not the strict RR form SIN (spelled the same as sin, despite being pronounced differently). The recommendations are not strictly required; ad-hoc romanizations are allowed, and have been increasingly permitted over time due to a number of court cases.

External links

• Romanization of Korean from the National Institute of Korean Language