Romanization of Korean (North)

Romanization of Korean is the official Korean-language romanization system in North Korea. Announced by the Sahoe Kwahagwŏn, it is an adaptation of the older McCune–Reischauer system, which it replaced in 1992,^[1][2] and it was updated in 2002^[2][3] and 2012.^[4]

Transcription rules

Vowels

Consonants

• In double consonants in the end of a word or before a consonant, only one of them is written:

• 닭섬 → Taksŏm
• 물곬 → Mulkol

• However, in the case before a vowel, both consonants are written:

• 붉은바위 → Pulgŭnbawi
• 앉은바위 → Anjŭnbawi

• The soft voiceless consonants between vowels ㄱ, ㄷ, and ㅂ and those between resonant sounds and vowels are transcribed as g, d, and b.

• Final consonants may undergo assimilation before resonants.

• 백마산 → Paengmasan
• 꽃마을 → KKonmaŭl
• 압록강 → Amrokgang

• When lax consonants become tense in compound words, they are transcribed as tense consonants if they are preceded by a vowel. Also, if the next element begins with a resonant, then n is added before it.

• 기대산 → Kittaesan
• 새별읍 → Saeppyŏl-ŭp
• 뒤문 → Twinmun

• The consonant clusters ㄴㄹ and ㄴㄴ are only transcribed as ll if they correspond with longstanding usage; ㄹㄹ does not have a special transcription.

• 천리마 → Chŏllima
• 한나산 → Hallasan
• 찔레골 → JJilregol

• Double consonants may be capitalized as a single unit: kk → KK.

Guide

A personal name is written by family name first, followed by a space and the given name with the first letter capitalized. Also, each letter of a name of Chinese character origin is written separately. The given name's first initial is transcribed in a voiceless letter, even when it becomes resonant in pronunciation.

• 김꽃분이 → Kim KKotpuni
• 박동구 → Pak Tong Gu
• 안복철 → An Pok Chŏl

However, it is not really possible to follow this rule because a certain name written in hangul can be a native Korean name, or a Sino-Korean name, or even both. For example, 보람 can not only be a native Korean name,^[6] but can also be a Sino-Korean name (e.g. 寶濫).^[7] In some cases, parents intend a dual meaning: both the meaning from a native Korean word and the meaning from hanja.

A name for administrative units is hyphenated from the placename proper:

However, a name for geographic features and artificial structures is not hyphenated:

Sound changes are not transcribed in the suffixes above:

• 삿갓봉 → Satkatbong
• 압록강 → Amrokgang

Transcription of geographical names may be simplified by removing breves and by reducing initial double consonants to single consonants:

• 서포 → Sŏpho → Sopho
• 찔레골 → JJilregol → Jilregol

Notes

References

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