REPORT ON THE CURRENT STATUS OF
UNITED NATIONS ROMANIZATION SYSTEMS FOR GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES
Compiled by the UNGEGN Working Group on Romanization Systems
Version 2.2, January 2003

Korean

No romanization system for Korean has been approved at the United Nations conferences on the standardization of geographical names, although systems for the romanization of Korean have been presented at several sessions of the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN). Experts at the sessions have repeatedly expressed their wish that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea should continue their efforts in aspiring to agree on a single international system for the romanization of Korean geographical names.

In the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea there is a national system adopted in 1992 and presented to the 17th session of UNGEGN in 1994, updated version was published in 2002 (Guideline for The Romanization of Korean (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea). Eighth United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names. Berlin, 27 August – 5 September 2002. Document E/CONF.94/INF.72.).

In the Republic of Korea the Ministry of Culture and Tourism adopted in July 2000 a new system of romanization for Korean (New Romanization System of Korean (Republic of Korea). Eighth United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names. Berlin, 27 August – 5 September 2002. Document E/CONF.94/INF.68) which superseded another system approved in 1984. It is provided that the full transition to the new system will be completed before the end of 2005 but it is already compulsory since March 2002 to follow this system in new publications.

Apart from the national systems the most widely used international system is that of McCune-Reischauer (1939) which has also been adopted by the BGN and the PCGN (Romanization Systems and Roman-script Spelling Conventions. Prepared by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names Foreign Names Committee Staff. Published by the Defense Mapping Agency. 1994, pp. 57-61).

A transliteration system that was provisionally agreed upon by the ISO experts of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea, is given in ISO TR 11941:1996 (a provisional technical report, not enforced as a standard) (The summary of it was published at the Internet site http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/kskim/11941.html ).

In linguistics also the so-called Yale system of romanization is widely accepted (See e.g. The World’s Writing Systems. Edited by Peter T. Daniels and William Bright. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press 1996, pp. 218-227).

Korean uses an alphabetic script in which the characters are grouped graphically together into complex syllable blocks. So, the geographical name P’anmunjŏm is written 판문점, not ㅍㅏㄴㅁㅜㄴㅈㅓㅁ.

Systems of romanization

The following table gives a comparison of all the main romanization systems. The character sequence has been taken from ISO TR 11941, there are variations to this in national usage. Romanization equivalents in the columns are as follows: 1 – ISO TR 11941, 2 – national system of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (1992), 3 – national system of the Republic of Korea (2000), 4 – McCune-Reischauer system (1939), 5 – Yale system of romanization.
1 2 3 4 5
1 ㄱ k/g k g, kF k k
2 ㅋ kh/k kh k k’ kh
3 ㄲ kk/gg kk kk kk kk
4 ㄷ t/d t d, tF t t
5 ㅌ th/t th t t’ th
6 ㄸ tt/dd tt tt tt tt
7 ㅂ p/b p b, pF p p
8 ㅍ ph/p ph p p’ ph
9 ㅃ pp/bb pp pp pp pp
10 ㅈ c/j j j ch c
11 ㅊ ch/c ch ch ch’ ch
12 ㅉ cc/jj jj jj tch cc
13 ㅅ s s s s s
14 ㅆ ss ss ss ss ss
15 ㅎ h h h h h
16 ㅇ ’A, -B, ngC -, ngE -, ngE -, ngE -, ngE
17 ㄴ n n n n n
18 ㄹ l, rD r r, lG r, n, l l
19 ㅁ m m m m m
20 ㅏ a a a a a
21 ㅓ eo ŏ eo ŏ e
22 ㅗ o o o o o
23 ㅜ u u u u wu
24 ㅡ eu ŭ eu ŭ u
25 ㅣ i i i i i
26 ㅐ ae ae ae ae ay
27 ㅔ e e e e ey
28 ㅚ oe oe oe oe oy
29 ㅑ ya ya ya ya ya
30 ㅕ yeo yŏ yeo yŏ ye
31 ㅛ yo yo yo yo yo
32 ㅠ yu yu yu yu ywu
33 ㅒ yae yae yae yae yay
34 ㅖ ye ye ye ye yey
35 ㅘ wa wa wa wa wa
36 ㅝ weo wŏ wo wŏ we
37 ㅟ wi wi wi wi wuy
38 ㅙ wae wae wae wae way
39 ㅞ we we we we wey
40 ㅢ yi ŭi ui ŭi uy

Notes to ISO TR 11941: 1996

  1. Where there are pairs of romanizations, the first corresponds to Method I and the second to Method II.
  2. To avoid ambiguity the apostrophe is used to denote the beginning of the next syllable in a polysyllabic word.
  3. By Method I the apostrophe is needed in the following cases:
    1. if the consonant ㅇ is at the initial position of a non-initial syllable of a polysyllabic word: 꽂이 kkoch’i, 강에 kang’e, 앉아라 anc’ara;
    2. if the five double consonants appear at the initial positions of the non-initial syllables of polysyllabic words: 아까a’kka, 흰떡 hyin’tteok;
    3. if the four aspirated consonants appear at the initial position of the non-initial syllables of polysyllabic words: 유쾌하다 yu’khwaehata;
  4. By Method II the apostrophe is needed in the following cases:
    1. if the consonant ㅇ is at the initial position of a non-initial syllable of a polysyllabic word: 꽂이 ggoc’i, 강레 gang’e, 앉아라 anj’ara;
    2. if the five double consonants appear at the initial positions of the non-initial syllables of polysyllabic words: 아까 a’gga, 흰떡 hyin’ddeog.

There are complicated rules based on pronunciation that determine the conversion of Korean syllables into Roman and the romanizations given in the table reflect only the most typical values. Most changes concern consonants which are often assimilated when used in combinations. The rules are given differently in various romanization systems and for reasons of economy these are not reproduced in this report.