Talk:McCune-Reischauer
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66.156.41.49, don't you know Phonology. There is phonologically no distinction between the b and p in Korean as the p and p' complementally distribute in English. --Nanshu 01:03, 31 Aug 2003 (UTC)
Disagree that McR is based on English pronounciation. Vowels are Romance-languages based (Italian-like), at least for these sounds that exist in Western languages. Nanshu is right regarding the complementary distribution of plosives (p/b, t/d, k/g). --dda. Jan 21, 2004. 14:30 KST
I would like more explanation of the consonant table and a few examples. —Tokek 11:24, 16 May 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Add English and Chinese characters to all examples
...to the maximum extent possible.
[edit] Final ㅎ
I'd like to challenge the transcription of 좋은 as choŭn:
- “Thus in Romanization, a syllabic final ㅎ should be represented as follows: h before vowels …” —McCune, George M. & Reischauer, Edwin O. (1939). The Romanization of the Korean Language. In Transactions of the Korea Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 29, p. 47, first footnote
Hence, I think it should be chohŭn.—Wikipeditor
Odd, though, that what seems to be an official site does not say so. There is no difference in pronunciation between 좋은 and 조은, so in my mind their McCune-Reischauer transliterations should not differ, either. Hence, I believe that choŭn is still correct. McCune-Reischauer's first purpose is for pronunciation, not complete depiction of the characters. Blue Wizard 23:21, 23 November 2006 (UTC)
- I prefer to stick to the original rules as far as possible. As long as everybody romanises their own way, finding information can be a tedious task. Wikipeditor 03:20, 24 November 2006 (UTC)
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- Although one does run the risk that the original rules may either a) no longer reflect standard North/South Korean pronunciation, or b) introduce errors due to the creators' imperfect grasp of Korean phonology (they were non-native speakers, after all, and it would be surprising if they had *not* introduced a few errors). -- Visviva 15:25, 29 November 2006 (UTC)
- Going by the 1939 paper, it does appear that you're right; the authors are quite explicit on p. 36 that ㅎ is always and only romanized "H." But that's not quite the end of the story, since the remark in the table on p. 40 (that syllable-final ㅎ is "used in the new spelling only") reminds us that McCune & Reischauer were working with a hangul orthography rather different from the one now standard. It does seem, although one doesn't wish to cast aspersions, that the p. 47 footnote might have been due to an imperfect grasp/consideration of the pronunciation issues involved. Hard to say... but I would aver that choŭn at least reflects the spirit, if not the letter, of MR. -- Visviva 15:58, 29 November 2006 (UTC)
- M&R's original paper was mainly concerned with the traditional Korean orthography. Syllable-final "ㅎ" never occurred in the traditional orthography, as far as I know. Yongjik 09:59, 20 September 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Chicken
Would the correct MR for 닭 be tak? Is this perchance mentioned in an authoritative document somewhere? -- Visviva 15:25, 29 November 2006 (UTC)
