Korean/Romanization

Overview

 * See also
 * wikipedia: Talk:Korean_language/Archive_1

Native script
According to Hangul ,
 * "the original order of the vowels was: ㆍ ㅡ ㅣ ㅗ ㅏ ㅜ ㅓ ㅛ ㅑ ㅠ ㅕ."

This order readily splits into three sets, (ㆍ ㅡ ㅣ), ( ㅗ ㅏ ㅜ ㅓ), ( ㅛ ㅑ ㅠ ㅕ), strongly suggesting the step-by-step evolution of the native vowels. The above table may help explain the five evolutionary stages of their constitution as follows:
 * 1)  1 element is included in each of 3 simple vowels, cosmic and atomic. These three cosmic vowels are just enough to typify and type all the 21 modern vowels, thus leading to one of the greatest patents in Korean cell phones.
 * 2)  2 elements are included in each of 4 simple vowels, basic modules or molecules. Note the sun rises up and sets down the earth, east and west, or back and forth, of the man.
 * 3)  3 elements are included in each of 4 iotized vowels, in the exact 2nd-stage analogy.
 * 4)  4 elements are included in each of 2 harmonic vowels, in the exact 2nd-stage harmony.
 * 5)  1~4 elements plus "ㅣ" are included in each of 12 front vowels, in the exact extension from all kinds but "ㅣ" that is the consort as well as progenitor of them in itself.

By the way, you may be sensitive enough to observe or perceive the 2nd and 4th bodily columns look lighter than the 3rd and 5th columns, respectively, though the 2nd-3rd and 4th-5th columns respectively share the same objective or physical shades, #555555 and #777777. Such observed or perceived differences in shade are subjective or physiological instead of objective or physical. Why at all? In general, our physiology may favor an object in sharper than physical contrast with the surroundings. And this may hold in hearing and even the other senses. We hear the whisper louder in silence. On the other hand, we hear the talk of our partner clearer in the noisy pub or cocktail party, and the mother penguin hears her baby's quack clearer in the extremely noisy crowds. Colin Cherry (1953) dubbed this physiological bias the cocktail party effect. We live by signs and senses as well as science!

The native script may be phonologically imperfect. Nevertheless, it is practically the best orthoepic as well as orthographic medium or system of authority, especially for Koreans speaking Korean. Koreans too can make clearer sense of any rough signs, whose magic is not always either objective or once and for all, as suggested above by the way. With /e/ given, for example, they could make sense of "ㅓ" rather than "ㅔ" which is exactly the case with Yale Romanization.

The following is the native vowel chart that groups the seven simple vowels (all in the 1st and 2nd stages) into the neutral (in black), the lunar, dark, cold or negative (陰 in blue) and the solar, light, warm or positive (陽 in red). It looks like a simple version of IPA vowel chart.



The pronunciation of the obsolete "ㆍ" and "ㆎ" may be not properly reconstructed and related to /on/ and /oil/. Yet it is also likely that together with "ㅚ, ㅐ," "ㆎ" was originally a monothong, rather than a diphthong, say, /oil/. It was mostly shifted to "ㅐ" in modern Korean.

On the other hand, IPA:[bui] for /buoy/ above is taken for granted. Like "ㆎ", however, it is also likely that together with "ㅟ, ㅔ," "ㅢ" was originally a monothong, say, IPA:[Y] close to [y], rather than a diphthong, say, /buoy/. Meanwhile the pronunciation of "ㅢ" also varies from [u] to [i] in practice recently.

English orthography is pure as far as its orthoepy is poor. From the Korean perspective, English orthoepy in the 4th row, as compared with the 2nd, looks like the unprincipled or troubled waters. Especially, Korean "ㅓ" among the four 2nd-stage simple vowels sounds like the initial letter of /abut, err, irk, onion, up/, covering all the English simple vowels, /a, e, i, o, u/. Relatively, however, /e/ appears the best match, though it mostly sounds clear like either /e/ of /ebb/ or /evil/.

McCune–Reischauer Romanization
Perhaps from the unprincipled or misguided orthoepic perspective, MR matches /ŏ/ and /ŭ/ respectively with "ㅓ" and "ㅡ" uneasily and implausibly as far as YR matches /e/ and /u/ instead plausibly. These are the two out of six elementary simple vowels in the 1st and 2nd stages. In effect, MR and YR collectively have confirmed that there is no certain orthoepic principle of transliteration and transcription.

However uneasy and implausible, MR should better have carried on the formality of /ŏ/ and /ŭ/ in the subsequent stages, as steadily as the native script does, so as to avoid the corruption and obscuration of, and to keep step with, its manifest evolution.

The upper side of the last stage adopts the ending semivowel /e/ in place of "ㅣ" while the lower the normal vowel /e/ or /i/ abnormally just making half sense of that well-principled stage, which alone is as prolific as all the rest. The hyphen is needed in the following to keep the vowels from being mistaken for /ŭi/ (ㅢ).

The character is a holon that is Janus-faced. In isolation, it could be defined or designed anyway. In context, however, it should not be done so but maximally harmonized and optimized from the wide system perspective. MR designed /e/ most likely according to the Western phonocentric or orthoepic preference rather than the due role it should play in the Korean language as an optimum orthographic system.

Even while /e/ is matched with "ㅓ" as in YR, Westerners are still free to pronounce it like "ㅔ" or otherwise as they used to, say, like "쎄울" (seul) or "쏘울" (soul) instead of "서울" (Seoul) as Koreans do.

Orthoepically, by the way, English /s/ may be better matched with "ㅆ" than "ㅅ". Orthographically, however, it may be well matched vice versa, since "ㅅ" is as popular as /s/, and more importantly since the wholesome interplay as a whole is more vital than each smart sound as a part.

In a way, MR may have well matched /ŏ/ with "ㅓ" either in isolation or in relation to /yŏ/ and /wŏ/ ("ㅕ" and "ㅝ"), but, in another, not so well done in relation to /ye/ and /we/ ("ㅖ" and "ㅞ"), which are implicitly related but explicitly unrelated within the MR frame of reference.

Revised Romanization
Simply, RR inherits almost all vowels from MR except for replacing the uneasy breve with the leading semivowel /e/, perhaps hence the name, thus adding one more role of /e/ to the existing two, as summed up as follows:
 * 1) The primary, normal vowel, as /e/ (old)
 * 2) The ending semivowel, as of /ae/, /oe/ (old)
 * 3) The leading semivowel, as of /eo/, /eu/ (new)

Without hyphens used between vowels, therefore, ambiguity matters helpless among the normal vowel and the semivowels. The string /aeoeui/ could be hyphenated in so many ways as to be precise. The hyphen is needed in the following to keep the vowels from being mistaken for /ui/ (ㅢ).

Yale Romanization
As far as vowels are concerned, YR is morphologically closer or more faithful than the others to the five evolutionary stages of the native vowels. Therefore, this should be taken most seriously so as to aim at the closest romanization worthy of orthography.

Meanwhile, YR uses /y/ as the ending semivowel in the 5th stage overlappingly, in addition to the leading semivowel in the 3rd iotizing stage. Thus, the string /hayan/ may be either /ha-yan/ (하얀) "white" or /hay-an/ (해안) "beach". The disambiguating hyphen or the like is a must.

The use of /wi/ instead of /wuy/ or /wy/ as morphologically expected in the 5th stage is thus exceptional, however popular. This vowel is said to be originally a monothong rather than diphthong, hence differing from /wi/ of English widow, though it may have corrupted to sound more and more like that nowadays.

In the 2nd stage, YR in contrast matches /wu/ with "ㅜ" implausibly as far as MR matches /u/ instead if plausibly. As a result, the iotized /yu/ (ㅠ) would be falsely related to /u/ (ㅡ) rather than /wu/ (ㅜ). The interchange of /wu/ and /u/ makes it highly analogous to RR's /eu/ and /u/ and MR's /ŭ/ and /u/. (RR would better have adopted /wu/ than /eu/ that is too ambiguous.)

In a way as well as in etymology, to differ is to defer, hence Jacques Derrida's idea of différance. Follies barely end within but spread without. Nothing is isolated; anything is interwoven. Especially so is it in mind. Thus needed indeed is to avoid or stop differing and deferring foolish to start being wise!

Orthographic Romanization
This is a draft of, so to speak, Orthographic Romanization, according to the above review. Plausibly in the 2nd stage to lay the foundation hopefully fully leveled, YR matches /e/ with "ㅓ" and MR and RR do /u/ with "ㅜ". Collectively, they justify the adoption of the basic Roman vowels /a, e, o, u/ in this stage.

On this basis, the 3rd, 4th, and 5th stages have only to do with extending those four simple vowels one way after another by virtue of the semivowels /y-/, /w-/, and /-j/, respectively.

Just one rather special thing is, so to speak, the "back-formation" (during the 4th, harmonizing stage) of the two 1st-stage vowels, /wo/ (ㆍ) and /wu/ (ㅡ), which are literally unfamiliar in most languages overshadowed by /u/. Most likely, however, both sound between the solar /o, a/ (ㅗ, ㅏ) and between the lunar /u, e/ (ㅜ, ㅓ), respectively, the harmonic pairs of which in principle are mainly responsible for yielding the harmonic diphthongs /wa/ (ㅘ) and /we/ (ㅝ), respectively. Refer to the native vowel chart above, adapted from Hangul, and to the following therefrom.

As a clear or exact transliteration as such, this draft romanization is as orthographic as the native script. As a result, it could completely do without any hyphen within a sequence of vowels, say, /yaeoeui/ (야어오어우이) which would annoy RR most.


 * Full-blown

Comparison

 * 1st row
 * All the modes appear well principled. Except for OR, however, they are liable to ambiguity.


 * 2nd row
 * Full agreement


 * 3rd row
 * Full agreement


 * 4th row
 * This is unprincipled or troubled alone between the 2nd and 4th (bodily) rows, between Heaven and Earth.


 * 5th row
 * The anomalous /wi/ of the 2nd column suggests how unprincipled the majority could be.


 * More comments
 * Note how close OR is to YR in the 1st through 4th stages. In effect, OR is YR as revised as RR is MR.
 * Note also how much the impact may vary from revision to revision. One may be revolutionary while another dotori kicjajgi in Korean.
 * Korean "ㅡ" [ʊ] and "ㅜ" [u] differ as much as English book (IPA:/bʊk/) and Dutch buok (IPA:/buk/) do. In this regard, YR would be best justified in English, but not in Korean perspective, as the latter (ㅜ), though evolved later, is more reproductive than the former (ㅡ), and thus should be shorter from the information theoretic perspective.
 * OR versus YR is "ㅡ" versus "ㅜ" in a way.
 * In another, OR versus YR is /-j/ versus /-y/, the ending semivowel, overridingly added in the last stage.
 * In contrast with all the others, the compound vowels of OR are so certain or free from ambiguity as the single that the 25 vowels can be mixed up and sorted out, hence doing without /q/ (ㅇ) within such a mixture like European languages!

Orthographic Romanization

 * Initial consonants full-blown


 * Final consonants full-blown

Examples

 * dotori kicjajgi
 * Acorns measure themselves with each other. (Korean proverb)
 * Acorns may well stand for people of similar small heights.

NS: 도토리 키재기: 정도가 고만고만한 사람끼리 서로 다툼을 이르는 말. OR: dotori kicjajgi: cjengdoga gomangomanhan saramckiri sero datum-wul irwunwun mal. YR: totholi khicayki: cengtoka komankomanhan salamkkili selo tathwum-ul ilunun mal. RR: dotori kijaegi: jeongdoga gomangomanhan saramkkiri seoro datum-eul ireuneun mal. MR: tot'ori k'ichaeki: chŏngtoka komankomanhan saramkkiri sŏro tat'um-ŭl irŭnŭn mal. above: dotori kijaegi: jeongdoga gomangomanhan saramkkiri seoro datum-eul ireuneun mal. maybe: dotori kija-egi: je-ongdoga gomangomanhan saramkkiri se-oro datum-e-ul ire-une-un mal.
 * These examples don't make everything explicit. Things always remain implicit or tacit. So you have to make the implicit explicit as much as you want to.
 * While OR is once and for all, RR as well as others is not always so. The above RR example may be questionable as follows:

Middle Korean

 * (ZinSwojng; 인생, insajng, 人生)