Hangul and Other Languages

Index



Hangul Romanizations

You may want to refer to the Hangul Alphabets for details on each alphabets.

There are serveral ways to represent Hangul in Roman alphabets. Since phonemes from two different languages cannot be the same, it's always tricky to come up with a system that can satisfy everyone.

One is by MunHwaGwanGwangBu (¹®È­°ü±¤ºÎ MunHwaGwanGwangBu / Ministry of Culture and Tourism) on July 7, 2000. Another is by the Korean Language Society (ÇѱÛÇÐȸ HanGeulHakHoe) in 1984. ISO (ISO/TR 11941:1996) is another method. The ISO method actually contains two, one for North Korea (DPRK) and the other for South Korea (ROK).

There are other less used ones such as the Yale, Lukoff and Horne methods.

The thing is, with all these standard methods, people still come up with their own ways of writing, for example, their names. I had my own, but I will try to follow the MCT method as much as possible.

The MCT method has the following priciples.

  1. The romanization should follow the standard Korean pronunciation.
  2. The romanization should avoid using anything other than the roman alphabets (i.e., no accents).

I have additional rules based on the MCT methods.

  1. The sound can be ambiguous and I hate any punctuation inbetween, so the first character of each syllable can be capitalized, especially when it is uncommon or long (i.e., not "hangul").
  2. For proper nouns (e.g., a name of a person), it should respect how their owners (?) spelled them. This is actually specified in the MCT document, but I wanted to make it clear.

[index] [main]


Hangul Consonant Romanization Table

ÀÚÀ½ MCT KLS ISO (ROK) ISO (DPRK)
¤¡ G(1) / K(2) G G K
¤¤ N N N N
¤§ D(1) / T(2) D D T
¤© R(1)(5) / L(2) L R(1) / L(2) R(1) / L(2)
¤± M M M M
¤² B(1) / P(2) B B P
¤µ S S S S
¤· none(3) / NG(4) none(3) / NG(4) none(3) / NG(4) none(3) / NG(4)
¤¸ J J J C
¤º CH CH C CH
¤» K K K KH
¤¼ T T T TH
¤½ P P P PH
¤¾ H H H H
¤¢ KK GG GG KK
¤¨ TT DD DD TT
¤³ PP BB BB PP
¤¶ SS SS SS SS
¤¹ JJ JJ JJ CC
(1) Before a vowel.
(2) Before a consonant or as a final sound.
(3) As the first marker within a syllable box.
(4) As the final sound of a syllable.
(5) For "¤©¤©", it is written as "LL".

[index] [main]


Hangul Vowel Romanization Table

¸ðÀ½ MCT KLS ISO (ROK / DPRK)
¤¿ A
¤À AE
¤Á YA
¤Â YAE
¤Ã EO
¤Ä E
¤Å YEO
¤Æ YE
¤Ç O
¤È WA
¤É WAE
¤Ê OE
¤Ë YO
¤Ì U
¤Í WO WEO WEO
¤Î WE
¤Ï WI
¤Ð YU
¤Ñ EU
¤Ò UI EUI YI
¤Ó I

[index] [main]


Hangul Representation of Foreign Words

There is also a set of rules for writing foreign language words in Hangul (¿Ü·¡¾î Ç¥±â¹ý OeRaeEo PyoGiBeop). The Ministry of Education (¹®±³ºÎ MunGyoBu, a previous incarnation of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism) has such a rule published in January 7, 1986. This rule has the following basic principles.
  1. Only the modern set of Hangul jamo's should be used.
  2. One phoneme should be represented by only one symbol.
  3. For the final sounds, only the following is used: ¤¡, ¤¤, ¤©, ¤±, ¤², ¤µ, ¤·.
  4. A plosive should not be represented by "thick sound" (µÈ¼Ò¸®, i.e., ¤¢, ¤¨, ¤³, ¤¶, ¤¹).
  5. Those foreign word representations that are already widely in use should be respected.

These tables use a version of International Phonetic Alphabets by the Internation Phonetic Association.

Anyway, the MOE's rules don't seem to be complete (e.g., it's missing "oo" for "foot"), but that will have to do here. Just try to match as closely as possible and that would be fine.

As you can easily notice, there are some English sounds that are not in Korean. So, for those cases, after double conversion, they might sound somewhat different. :) Here are some examples.

  • fork - Æ÷Å© - PoKeu / pork - Æ÷Å© - PoKeu
  • vie - ¹ÙÀÌ - BaI / by - ¹ÙÀÌ - BaI
  • thigh - »çÀÌ - SaI / sigh - »çÀÌ - SaI

[index] [main]


Consonant Hangul Table

IPA Hangul Examples
Before a vowel Before a consonant or as a final sound
p ¤½ ¤²(3) / ÇÁ(4) pop ÆË, stamp ½ºÅÆÇÁ, apple ¾ÖÇÃ, chipmunk Ä¡ÇÁ¸ÛÅ©
t ¤¼ ¤µ(3) / Æ®(4) tent ÅÙÆ®, cat Ĺ, nest ³×½ºÆ®, mattress ¸ÅÆ®¸®½º
k ¤» ¤¡(3) / Å©(4) cook Äî, desk µ¥½ºÅ©, sickness ½ÃÅ©´Ï½º
b ¤² ºê bulb ¹úºê, lobster ·Îºê½ºÅÍ
d ¤§ µå bird ¹öµå, door µµ¾î
g ¤¡ ±× gate °ÔÀÌÆ®, signal ½Ã±×³Î
s ¤µ ½º mask ¸¶½ºÅ©
z ¤¸ Áî jazz ÀçÁî
f(1) ¤½ ÇÁ Stanford ½ºÅÄÆ÷µå, chef ½¦ÇÁ
v(1) ¤² ºê view ºä, valve ¹ëºê
θ(1) ¤µ ½º thrill ½º¸±
ð(1) ¤§ µå bathe º£À̵å
ʃ ½Ã(5) ½Ã / ½´(6) flash Ç÷¡½Ã, shrub ½´·¯ºê, shark »þÅ©
ʒ ¤¸ Áö mirage ¹Ì¶óÁö, vision ºñÁ¯
ts ¤º Ã÷ Keats Å°Ã÷
dz ¤¸ Áî odds ¿ÀÁî
ʧ ¤º Ä¡ chart Â÷Æ®, switch ½ºÀ§Ä¡
ʤ ¤¸ Áö virgin ¹öÁø, bridge ºê¸®Áö
m ¤± ¤± mom ¸¾
n ¤¤ ¤¤ nun ³Í
ŋ ¤· ¤· ink À×Å©
ɲ ´Ï ´º campagne (French) IJÆÄ´º
l(2) ¤©(7) / ¤©¤©(8) hotel È£ÅÚ, slide ½½¶óÀ̵å, film Çʸ§, light ¶óÀÌÆ®
r(2) ¤© ¸£ / none(9) right ¶óÀÌÆ®, car Ä«
h ¤¾ Èå host È£½ºÆ®
ç ¤¾ È÷  
χ ¤¾ Èå  
(1) There are no such sounds for these in Korean, so these are approximated.
(2) There is no difference between [l] and [r]. Or more accurately speaking, Koreans don't hear the difference.
(3) When it ends after a short vowel or appears between a short vowel and a consonent other than these consonents: [l], [r], [m] and [n].
(4) When it ends after a long vowel or it appears between a short vowel and these consonents: [l], [r], [m] and [n].
(5) It changes according to the vowel following it: »þ, ¼¨, ¼Å, ¼Î, ¼î, ½´, and ½Ã.
(6) When it appears before a consonent.
(7) When it is the final sound or is before a consonent and when it is between a nasal sound ([m] or [n]) and a vowel.
(8) When it is between a non-nasal sound and a vowel or is before a nasal sound that is not before a vowel.
(9) Although it has ¸£, if 'r' does not appear before a vowel, it will be ignored (more like the British 'r').

[index] [main]


Vowel Hangul Table

IPA Hangul Examples
i ÀÌ beet ºñÆ®
y À§ rue (French) ·ò
e ¿¡ play Ç÷¹ÀÌ
ø ¿Ü  
ɛ ¿¡ bet ºª
ɛ̃ ¾Þ  
œ ¿Ü  
œ̃ ¿ã  
æ ¾Ö at ¾Ü
a ¾Æ how ÇÏ¿ì
ɑ ¾Æ car Ä«
ɑ̃ ¾Ó  
ʌ ¾î but ¹þ
ɔ ¿À all ¿Ã
ɔ̃ ¿Ë  
o ¿À boy º¸ÀÌ
u ¿ì  
ə ¾î(1) about ¾î¹Ù¿ô
ɚ ¾î  
j ÀÌ (half vowel)(2) yes ¿¹½º, yard ¾ßµå, yearn ¿¬, you À¯, year À̾î, battalion ¹öÅÚ¸®¾ð, union À¯´Ï¾ð
ɥ À§ (half vowel)  
w ¿À, ¿ì (half vowel)(3) word ¿öµå, want ¿øÆ®, woe ¿ö, wander ¿Ï´õ, wag ¿Ö±×, west ¿þ½ºÆ®, witch À§Ä¡, wool ¿ï, swing ½ºÀ®, twist Æ®À§½ºÆ®, penguin Æë±Ï, whistle ÈÖ½½, quarter ÄõÅÍ
(1) For German, it is written as ¿¡. For French, it is written as À¸.
(2) It combines with the following vowel to become ¾ß, ¾ê, ¿©, ¿¹, ¿ä, À¯, and ÀÌ. However, for [djə], [ljə] and [njə], it is written as µð¾î, ¸®¾î, and ´Ï¾î.
(3) It combines with the following vowel to become ¿ö (for [wə], [wɔ] and [wou]), ¿Í (for [wɑ]), ¿Ö (for [wæ]), ¿þ (for [we]), À§ (for [wi]), and ¿ì (for [wu]). When it follows a consonent, except for [gw], [hw], and [kw], it is written as two syllables.
(4) Long vowels are the same as the short ones (e.g. ÆÄÆ® for "part").
(5) Compound vowels are written as a sequence of shorter vowels (e.g., "time" as ŸÀÓ) except for [ou] as ¿À (e.g., "boat" as º¸Æ®), and [auə] as ¾Æ¿ö (e.g., "hour" as ¾Æ¿ö).

[index] [main]



Created with Emacs

Maintained by Younghong "Hong" Cho
Last updated:
Created: February 6, 2004