[RAS Korea] Romanizing Korean in many different ways

This chart shows the differences between romanization systems by the French, the German Eckardt, James Scarth Gale and McCune-Reischauer. / Courtesy of RAS Korea

By Steven L. Shields

The McCune-Reischauer (MR) romanization system for the Korean language debuted in 1939. The launch of the MR system marked a significant turning point in Korea-related studies' proliferation.

The Royal Asiatic Society (RAS) Korea is proud to have been the organization that sponsored and promoted George M. McCune and Edwin O. Reischauer's work. The two scholars drafted a detailed document with charts of vowels and consonants and other explanations and descriptions.

Although they completed their efforts in 1937, the documentation finally appeared in print in RAS Korea's annual journal, "Transactions," vol. 29 (1939). Although the Republic of Korea government issued their new romanization system about 20 years ago, known as Revised Romanization (RR), the MR system remains the generally adopted system in academia worldwide.

When Drs. McCune (University of California) and Reischauer (Harvard University) launched their work on romanization, they discovered there were at least 27 different systems that had been in use since the earliest missionaries began working in Korea. While Japanese and Chinese each had widely accepted romanization systems before 1939, Korean had no single universal system.

One system, developed by French missionaries, relied on French phonetics. James Scarth Gale's system, probably the best-known, was sound, but in McCune and Reischauer's opinions, it had missed some key points. They proposed that since most non-Koreans living in Korea were English speakers, English phonology would be most useful.

Consulting several Western and Korean scholars and linguists, McCune and Reischauer noted the complex nature of Korean pronunciation and realized that a one-for-one letter exchange was impossible.

Since Japan had taken over Korea at the time of their work, McCune and Reischauer grappled with and rejected the argument that Japanese pronunciations and transliterations were inevitable. They wrote, "…few Occidental scholars will feel it wise to ignore the existence of the Korean language. Furthermore, in native Korean words, the use of Japanese reading is patently impossible."

The various charts included in their paper are both informative and helpful. They provided extensive charts of vowels and consonants. They also provided several other charts comparing some of the several romanization systems that were in use in contemporary Korea in the 1930s.

McCune and Reischauer also commented on both the strengths and inadequacies of the other systems. At the same time, they admitted their system was not perfect but asserted it dealt with other systems' various problems and added strengths.

This chart shows how McCune and Reischauer attempted to convert Korean vowels to Latin letters. / Courtesy of RAS Korea

Because of the several diacritical marks required to notate aspirated consonants and unusual vowel sounds, the MR system has had many critics over the years. Typewriting required extra work. Of course, all those problems disappeared with the computer's advent, where all types of diacritical markings are readily available and quickly written while keyboarding.

This factor was one impetus behind the Korean government's RR system, along with the fact that national pride demanded a system that was composed only by Koreans. However, the committee either forgot or ignored the fact Korean-speaking people would not pronounce the system. In their zeal to nationalize the romanization of the language, they introduced several pronunciation problems. Thus, nothing significantly better was achieved. Also, no one has yet been able to unify romanization systems between North and South Korea.

In their view, McCune and Reischauer believed their system's ability to provide an adequate romanization for Korean was simple. The euphonic changes in consonant pronunciation were and continue to be a challenge. With their two key charts, the Syllabic Table and the Chart of Euphonic Changes of Consonants, only three steps would be required.

First, write the words in Hangeul. This exercise was more important in the old days when Chinese characters were more widely used.

Second, follow the syllabic table and romanize each syllable separately (not by individual letter). Finally, one must correct the medial consonants using the chart of the euphonic changes. Such inconsistencies occur when final and initial consonants "blend." For example, "Shin ra" becomes "Shilla."

In conclusion, the professors argued their simple process would be adequate for most romanization problems but noted there would still be irregularities that must be dealt with outside the two basic charts. These various irregularities are discussed in detail on several pages of their paper.

This page examines syllable-ending digraphs as handled by McCune-Reischauer romanization rules. / Courtesy of RAS Korea

While we go with the flow and accede to the RR, RAS Korea proudly stands by its decades-long support of the MR romanization system.

First, by insisting that Japanese pronunciation and romanization system not be used; second, by picking one language phonetic norm (English), and understanding more than 80 years ago that English was the "international" language; third, by being for some years officially adopted by the ROK Ministry of Education as the norm; and finally, by its widespread use throughout worldwide academia, Drs. McCune and Reischauer achieved something no other system has attained.

A PDF copy of Transactions vol. 29 (and all other volumes) is available for download at raskb.com. Readers will find the original publication, with full documentation of the McCune-Reischauer romanization system.

Steven L. Shields, a retired cleric, is president of the Royal Asiatic Society Korea (www.raskb.com) and is also a columnist for The Korea Times.