Transferring English to Hangeul and Romanization of Hangeul

When I first started taking Korean classes in LA, my teacher said that Koreans pride themselves on their language being able to approximate sounds and words from any language. What he failed to mention was how poorly this is accomplished, at least for English. I'm going to forego quotation marks for letters and sounds in this entry because it's just too much work.


In addition to there being no letter to represent b, d, g, j, k, l, and r as we know them, you might also have noticed that Hangeul doesn't have letters or sounds for f, q, v, x, z, long and short a, long and short i, and short u. Truth be told, I'm not exactly sure about that last one. The short o (eo)sound seems to either vary between sound like a short o and a short u, or simply be a sound that is in between.


Because of these sounds not being represented, translators have to get creative when transferring names of products, movies, people, and borrowed words from English to Korean. Sounds for f and v are replaced by the aspirated p, p'ieup, and sounds for x and z are replaced by the j sound, chieut. They even use chieut for z's that don't make a z sound, like in pizza. As I mentioned in a previous entry, they could easily say and spell peet-sa with what they've got, but instead it becomes pija, because they get thrown by the z, a double z, even. Q being somewhat rare as it is, I don't think I've encountered it yet, but I imagine they just use the g/k sound, kiyeok, plus the w diphthongs. Long a is made by putting short e and long e next to each other. Short a is replaced by short e. Long i is made by putting the a and long e sounds next to each other. Short i is replaced by long e. Short u is replaced by short o.


Lack of appropriate letters isn't the only problem turning English words into Hangeul. There is also the set of pronunciation rules to deal with. The salient rule is the one involving not combining consonant sounds in the same syllable, as English loves to do. The way they get around this is by adding the eu sound to the end of each consonant, making each consonant get its own syllable.


Yet another rule involves the fact that there are only seven consonant sounds a syllable can end with. The other letters can end syllables, but their sounds change to one of the seven sounds, based on the place the sound is made in the mouth. This is the only common occurrence in the language that I can think of that is not phonetic. There are others, but they're relatively infrequent (I think). So when an English syllable ends in a sound that can't be at the end of a Korean syllable, the eu sound is added there, as well. Sometimes they add he eu sound even if the letter can be at the end of a syllable, though I'm not sure why.

Before I can give you examples of what I'm talking about, I have to explain the Romanization process. Because I can't type in Korean letters here without cutting and pasting each letter from somewhere, I'll have to Romanize my examples, so you need to know how that works. The first thing to know is that some of the letters make different sound depending on where it appears in the word--beginning, middle, or end. I'll give you the Romanization for each instance and any other pertinent information.


ㄱ
initial sound k-
medial sound -g-
final sound -k

ㄲ
gg-
-gg-
-k

ㄴ
n-
-n-
-n

ㄷ
t-
-d-
-t

ㄸ
dd-
-dd-
Cannot appear at the end of a syllable

ㄹ
r-
-r-
-l

ㅁ
m-
-m-
-m

ㅂ
p-
-b-
-p

ㅃ
bb-
-bb-
Cannot appear at the end of a syllable

ㅅ
s-
-s-
-t
When ㅅ precedes ㅣit makes an "sh" sound, but it is never Romanized "shi." It is still written as "si" and you just have to know that rule.

ㅆ
ss-
-ss-
-t

ㅇ
Makes no sound at the beginning of a syllable
-ng-
-ng

ㅈ
ch/j-
-j-
-t

ㅉ
cc-
-cc-
Cannot appear at the end of a syllable

In the following few letters, the apostrophe indicates aspiration and is what distinguishes the Romanized letter from the ones for the unaspirated sounds:

ㅊ
ch'-
-ch'-
-t

ㅋ
k'-
-k'-
-k

ㅌ
t'-
-t'-
-t

ㅍ
p'-
-p'-
-p

ㅎ
h-
-h-
-t

And here's a reminder about the vowel Romanizations and pronunciations:

ㅏ
a
as in "father"

ㅓ
eo
as in "hot"

ㅗ
o
as in "home"

ㅜ
u
as in "assume"

ㅐ
ae
as in "bear"

ㅔ
e
as in "met"

ㅡ
eu
as in "put"

ㅣ
i
as in "meet"

ㅑ
ya

ㅕ
yeo

ㅛ
yo

ㅠ
yu

ㅒ
yae

ㅖ
ye

ㅚ
oe
as if you were saying "oh, well" fast, but take off the l's

ㅘ
wa
as in "water"

ㅙ
wae
as in "wear"

ㅟ
wi
as in "we"

ㅝ
wo
as in "wall"

ㅞ
we
as in "went"

ㅢ
ui
as if you were saying the French "oui" without moving your lips

So finally, here are some examples of what I'm talking about. Say them out loud. The common nouns are loaners assimilated into Korean. The hyphens separate syllables.

tent
t'en-t'eu

fork
p'eo-keu

tomato
t'o-ma-t'o

piano
p'i-a-no

coffee
k'eo-p'i

Angelina Jolie
an-che-ri-na cho-ri

Harry Potter
hae-ri p'eo-t'a

Matrix
me-i-t'eu-ri-jeu

Here are some with the Hangeul that I copied out of the tv schedule online:

Illusionist
il-ru-syeo-ni-seu-t'eu
일루셔니스트

Nanny McPhee
nae-ni maek-p'i
내니맥피

Land of the Dead
laen-deu o-beu de-deu (they always omit "the")
랜드오브데드

V for Vendetta
peu-i p'o pen-de-t'a
브이포벤데타