McCune–Reischauer (MR; ) is a romanization system for the Korean language. It was first published in 1939 by George M. McCune and Edwin O. Reischauer. Significant work on the system was done by Korean linguists Choe Hyeon-bae, , and .
According to Reischauer, McCune "persuaded the American Army Map Service to adopt [the McCune–Reischauer system], and through the Korean War it became the foundation for most current Romanizations of Korean place names."
A variant of McCune–Reischauer is currently used as the official system in North Korea. Another variant is currently used for standard romanization library catalogs in North America. On the other hand, South Korea formerly used yet another variant as its official system from 1984 to 2000, but replaced it with the Revised Romanization of Korean in 2000.
Characteristics
The following are some characteristics of the McCune–Reischauer system: With a few exceptions, it does not attempt to transliterate Korean hangul but rather represents the phonetic pronunciation. Example: (pronounced []) (not *tokrip) The voiceless and voiced allophones of the Korean phonemes //, //, //, and // are transcribed differently. Examples: , , , The apostrophe is used for transcribing strongly aspirated consonants , , , and (, , and respectively), and for distinguishing () from (). Examples: ; (cf. ) The breve is used for the vowels () and (), and diphthongs containing those sounds ( , ; ).
Use of diacritics and their omission McCune–Reischauer employs dual use of apostrophes, with the more common being for syllabic boundaries. Therefore, it may take some time for learners to familiarise themselves with the placement of apostrophes to determine how a romanized Korean word is pronounced. For example, → , which consists of the syllables , , , and .
In the early days of the Internet, the apostrophe and breve were even omitted altogether for both technical and practical reasons, which made it impossible to differentiate the strongly aspirated consonants , , and from the unaspirated consonants , , and , and the vowels and from and .
For example, if the diacritics in the MR rendering of the name of South Korean city Ch'ŏngju () are omitted (Chongju), it overlaps with the name of North Korean city Chongju (). There is a claim of uncertain veracity that, during the 1950–1953 Korean War, the US Army accidentally (or almost) bombed the wrong city due to this.
As a result, the South Korean government introduced a revised system of romanization in 2000. However, Korean critics claimed that the Revised System fails to represent and in a way that is easily recognizable and misrepresents the way that the unaspirated consonants are actually pronounced.
Guide This is a simplified guide for the McCune–Reischauer system.
Vowels HangulRomanizationaaeyayaeŏeyŏyeowawaeoeyouwŏwewiyuŭŭii
Consonants Word-initially and word-finally HangulRomanizationWord-initialkkkntttrmpppsss—chtchch'k't'p'hWord-finalk—l—t—ngt—tktpt The heterogeneous consonant digraphs (, , , , , , , , , , and ) exist only as syllabic finals and are transcribed by their actual pronunciation.
Word-medially The following table is sufficient for the transcription of most proper names. + Final consonant of the previous syllable + initial consonant of the next syllable Initial—kkkntttrmpppssschtchh Final —gkkndttrmbppsssjtchh kgkkkkngnktkttngnngmkpkppksksskchktchkh nnngnkknnndnttllnmnbnppnsnssnjntchnh tdtktkknnttttnnnmtptppsssstchtchth lrlglkklllttlllmlblpplslssltchrh mmmgmkkmnmdmttmnmmmbmppmsmssmjmtchmh pbpkpkkmnptpttmnmmpppppspsspchptchph ngngnggngkkngnngdngttngnngmngbngppngsngssngjngtchngh
The following subsections are for cases not covered by the table above, or for cases where the result should be different from the table.
Any non- syllabic final + syllabic initial In this combination, the syllabic final (except , which is always ) is either directly transferred to the syllabic initial position of the next syllable (i.e. replacing the ), Examples: [] , [] , [] , [] , [] , [] When the syllabic final or (including ) is followed by , palatalization occurs. Examples: [] , [] , [] Syllabic final digraphs are split. Examples: [] , [] or neutralized to one of {ㄱ, ㄴ, ㄷ, ㄹ, ㅁ, ㅂ} first, and then transferred to the syllabic initial position of the next syllable. Examples: [→] , [→]
Any non- syllabic final + syllabic initial {ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ, ㅈ} If the syllabic initial is pronounced {[], [], [], []}, they are romanized {g, d, b, j}. When is preceded by , an apostrophe is added between them (i.e. ). {[], [], [], []}, they are romanized {k, t, p, ch} (not {kk, tt, pp, tch}).
Examples: [] vs. [] [] vs. [] [] vs. [] [] vs. () []
Any syllabic final + syllabic initial Any combination with the syllabic initial is transcribed based on the actual pronunciation, except when the result is [], [], or []; these are treated as (), (), and () respectively.
Examples: [] , [] , [] Examples of exceptions: ([], but treated as []) ([], treated as []) ([], treated as [])
Syllabic final + any syllabic initial Any combination with the syllabic final (including and ) is transcribed based on the actual pronunciation. Examples: [] , [] , []
Personal names The rules stated above are also applied in personal names, except between a surname and a given name. A surname and a given name are separated by a space, but multiple syllables within a surname or within a given name are joined without hyphens or spaces.
The original 1939 paper states the following:
The original paper also gives McCune–Reischauer romanizations for a number of other personal names: (), (), () (; ) (; ), (; ) History
George M. McCune, son of Pyongyang-based missionary George Shannon McCune, was born in Korea in 1905. After attending university in the United States, he returned to Korea (which was then under Japanese rule) in the summer of 1937 to work on his PhD dissertation for the University of California, Berkeley. In Korea, he studied at Chōsen Christian College (predecessor to Yonsei University) in Seoul (then called "Keijō") under the Korean linguists Choe Hyeon-bae, , and . Around September of that year, Japanologist Edwin O. Reischauer became stranded in Keijō while he was en route to Beijing due to the Second Sino-Japanese War. During Reischauer's two-month stay there, he and McCune worked with Choe, Jeong, and Kim to develop what would become the McCune–Reischauer romanization system. Work continued on the system even after Reischauer departed Korea to China. Eventually, the system was published in 1939 in the journal Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society Korea Branch.
In 1980, Reischauer wrote in a letter that the system was devised at his suggestion because he "found absolutely no uniform system of any sort, and [he] needed something for the Korean names that appeared in [his] studies on the travels of the [Japanese] monk Ennin". He also wrote that they designed the system "with only scholars in mind", and that he felt it was too complicated for regular use. He expressed hope that a new romanization that "everyone would use for both scholarly and popular use [would] be worked out and adopted".
English-language newspaper The Korea Times adopted the system in the 1950s. The system received pushback from Koreans. It came to be seen as more intuitive for foreigners and less intuitive for Koreans, as it reflected pronunciation changes that most Koreans were not consciously aware of. Fouser argued that another point of contention was related to nationalism; some disliked that the system had been developed by foreigners during the Japanese colonial period, and wanted a natively developed alternative. In 1959, the published a romanization system, which has since been dubbed the Ministry of Education system (MOE). The system was immediately controversial, especially among foreigners. Fouser evaluated the system as prioritizing use for Koreans; it had a one-to-one correspondence from Hangul to Latin script and did not reflect pronunciation changes that Hangul did not. In June 1981, a number of scholars met at the University of Hawaii's Center for Korean Studies and developed a number of proposed changes to MR. The changes were largely based on a draft proposal from the US Library of Congress and were meant to aid use by librarians. For example, it was designed to promote reversibility, which was to the interest of librarians. In the 1980s, the South Korean government began considering whether to use a more foreigner-friendly system in anticipation of the 1986 Asian Games and the 1988 Summer Olympics, which were to be held in Seoul. In 1984, a slightly modified version of McCune–Reischauer was adopted. Some South Koreans reportedly had negative reactions to the system, which they viewed as confusing and overly beholden to pronunciation.
With the spread of computers and the Internet in the 1990s, complaints and debate about MR grew. This was primarily related to the system's use of diacritics, which are difficult to access on standard keyboards. In 1997, the South Korean government began moving to revise or switch romanization systems.
In contemporary South Korea, which has since adopted Revised Romanization, MR has left a lasting legacy in a number of cases: "TK" standing for Daegu and Gyeongbuk (from the MR spellings "Taegu" and "Kyŏngbuk") First used on December 23, 1987 "PK" standing for Busan and Gyeongnam (from the MR spellings "Pusan" and "Kyŏngnam") Some IATA airport codes "CJU" for Jeju International Airport (from "Cheju") "PUS" for Gimhae International Airport (from "Pusan", the city in which this airport is located) "TAE" for Daegu International Airport (from "Taegu") "HIN" for Sacheon Airport (from "Chinju", an adjacent city) "KWJ" for Gwangju Airport (from "Kwangju") "CHN" for Jeonju Airport (from "Chŏnju") "KAG" for Gangneung Air Base (from "Kangnŭng")
Variants
North Korean variant
A variant of McCune–Reischauer is currently in official use in North Korea. The following are the differences between the original McCune–Reischauer and the North Korean variant: Aspirated consonants are represented by adding an h instead of an apostrophe. However, is transcribed as ch, not chh. is transcribed as j even when it is voiceless. is transcribed as jj instead of tch. is transcribed as lr instead of ll. is transcribed as lh instead of rh. When is pronounced as , it is still transcribed as r instead of n. and are differentiated by a hyphen. But when ng is followed by y or w, a hyphen is not used, like the original system. In personal names, each syllable in a Sino-Korean given name is separated by a space with the first letter of each syllable capitalized (e.g. An Pok Chŏl). Syllables in a native Korean name are joined without syllabic division (e.g. Kim KKotpuni). However, it is not really possible to follow this rule. See the section below.
The following table illustrates the differences above. Hangul McCune–Reischauer North Korean variant Meaning phyŏnji letter (message) Juche Juche anjjok inside ppalri quickly Palhae Parhae mongran Magnolia sieboldii yŏn-gu research, study yŏng-ŏ English language An Pok Chŏl personal name (surname , given name )
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: was written as shi instead of the original system's . When is followed by , it is realized as (similar to English (sh as in show)) instead of . The original system uses sh only in , as . was written as wo instead of the original system's . Because the diphthong w ( or as a semivowel) + o () does not exist in Korean phonology, the South Korean government omitted the breve in .