Under the McCune–Reischauer system, aspirated consonants like p', k', and t' are distinguished by apostrophe from unaspirated ones, which may be falsely understood as a separator between syllables. The apostrophe is also used to mark transcriptions of ㄴㄱ as opposed to ㅇ, so these diverse applications of apostrophe made people confused once omitted. Also, the breve is used to differentiate vowels in Korean. So if the apostrophe and breve are omitted, as on the internet, this made it impossible to differentiate between aspirated consonants k',t',p' and ch' and unaspirated consonants k,t,p and ch, separator between syllables, transcriptions of ㄴㄱ to ㅇ and vowels 어 and 오, and 으 and 우. An omission of apostrophe in internet and breve in keyboard was the primary reason the South Korean government adopted a revised system of romanization in 2000. However, critics of the revised system claim it fails to represent 어 and 으 in a way that is easily recognizable and misrepresents the way that the unaspirated consonants are actually pronounced. However, the counterargument for this assertion is that it is impossible to find perfectly matching pairs of letters between the two different writing systems, English and Korean, and priority should be given to revised system of romanization created by the help of many Korean linguists at the National Academy of the Korean Language over a five-year period than the McCune–Reischauer system created by two foreigners with the help of three Korean linguists over a two-year period during the Japanese colonial era. Meanwhile, despite official adoption of the new system in South Korea, North Korea uses a version of McCune–Reischauer, which does not accurately represent the phonetic characteristics of the Korean language.
Guide
This is a simplified guide for the McCune–Reischauer system. It is often used for the transliteration of names but does not convert every word properly, as several Korean letters are pronounced differently depending on their position.
Vowels
ㅔ is written as ë after ㅏ and ㅗ. This is to distinguish ㅐ from ㅏ에, and ㅚ and ㅗ에. The combinations ㅏ에 and ㅗ에 very rarely occur except in sentences when a noun is followed by a postposition, as, for example, 회사에서 hoesaësŏ and 차고에 ch'agoë.
The Korean surnames Lee and 이 are transcribed as Yi not I
Consonants
For ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ, and ㅈ, the letters g, d, b, or j are used if voiced, k, t, p, or ch otherwise. Pronunciations such as those take precedence over the rules in the table above.
Examples
Voiceless/voiced consonants
* 가구 kagu
* 등대 tŭngdae
* 반복 panbok
* 주장 chujang
The initial consonant ㅇ is disregarded in romanization, since it is only used in order to indicate the absence of sound.
* 국어 kugŏ
* 믿음 midŭm
* 법인 pŏbin
* 필요 p'iryo
r vs. l
* r
** Between two vowels: 가로 karo, 필요 p'iryo
** Before initial ㅎ h: 발해 Parhae, 실험 sirhŏm
* l
** Before a consonant, or at the end of a word: 날개 nalgae, 구별 kubyŏl, 결말 kyŏlmal
** ㄹㄹ is written ll: 빨리 ppalli, 저절로 chŏjŏllo
Consonant assimilations
* 연락 yŏllak
* 독립 tongnip
* 법률 pŏmnyul
* 않다 ant'a
* 맞히다 mach'ida
Palatalizations
* 미닫이 midaji
* 같이 kach'i
* 굳히다 kuch'ida
Exceptions that do not exactly follow pronunciation
The sequences -ㄱㅎ-, -ㄷㅎ- /-ㅅㅎ-, -ㅂㅎ- are written kh, th, ph respectively, even though they are pronounced the same as ㅋ, ㅌ, ㅍ.
* 속히 sokhi
* 못하다 mothada
* 곱하기 kophagi
When a plain consonant becomes a tensed consonant in the middle of a word, it is written k, t, p, s, or ch respectively, even though it is pronounced the same as ㄲ, ㄸ, ㅃ, ㅆ, or ㅉ.
* 태권도 t'aekwŏndo
* 손등 sontŭng
* 문법 munpŏp
* 국수 kuksu
* 한자 hancha
North Korean variant
In North Korea's variant of McCune–Reischauer, aspirated consonants are not represented by an apostrophe but are instead by adding an "h". For example, 평성 is written as Phyŏngsŏng. The original system would have it written as P'yŏngsŏng. However, the consonant ㅊ is transcribed as "ch", and not "chh", while ㅈ is transcribed as "j". For example, 주체 is spelled "Juche", and not "Chuch'e", as it would be transcribed using the original system.
ㅉ is written as "jj".
ㄹㄹ is transcribed as "lr". Example: 빨리 is spelled "ppalri".
ㄹㅎ is spelled "lh", and not "rh": e.g. 발해 is written as "palhae".
When ㄹ is pronounced as ㄴ, it is transcribed as "n" by the original system. Nevertheless, the North Korean variant keeps it as "r".
ㅇㅇ and ㄴㄱ are differentiated by using a "-". For example: 강인 is spelled "kang-in", and 인기 is spelled "in-gi".
When "ng" is followed by "y" or "w", however, the hyphen is not used.
The North Korean variant renders names of people with each syllable capitalized and no hyphenation between syllables of given names: e.g. "Kim Il Sung" for Kim Il-sung. Native Korean names, however, are written without syllabic division.
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 was written as shi instead of the original system's si. When ㅅ is followed by ㅣ, it is realized as the sound instead of the normal sound. The original system deploys sh only in the combination 쉬, as shwi.
ㅝ was written as wo instead of the original system's wŏ in this variant. Because the diphthong w + o does not exist in Korean phonology, the South Korean government omitted a breve in wŏ.
Hyphens were 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 were used only for aspiration marks and ë was not used in the South Korean system.
When ㄹ is followed by ㅎ, the ㄹ was 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
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
Other systems
A third system, the Yale Romanization system, which is a transliteration system, exists but is used only in academic literature, especially in linguistics. The Kontsevich system, based on the earlier Kholodovich system, is used for transliterating Korean into the Cyrillic script. Like McCune–Reischauer romanization it attempts to represent the pronunciation of a word, rather than provide letter-to-letter correspondence.
