Post by Candylover on Oct 22, 2005 15:56:57 GMT -5
Hi, I am a Korean member of Philadelphia Wang Guhn group. Next are what I posted there today, and I also post it here as someone here may be interested in.
Surely, the currently adoped "Korean Romanization" method by MCT
(Korean Ministry of Culture and Tourism)is very confusing both in
pronunciations and spells.
The biggest problem is that so called "Romanization" sometimes means
romanization into English, sometimes romanization into French,
sometimes into German, sometimes into Spanish, and so on.
Actually there does not exist such "Korean Romanization" method which
satisfies all of the distinctive languages speakers. Can we
expect "Dae Jang Geum" to be pronounced all the same way by English
speakers, German speakers, Italian speakers and so on?
If there exits something like that, It only exists in the weird
brains of some Korean linguists and MCT officials as an abstract idea.
We can only talk about anglicization, or frenchization, or
germanization of Korean, but can't talk about romanization.
You can see how "a, e, i, o, u" are pronounced in each language.
Even in English, they have very diverse ways of pronunciation. For
example, "a" is pronounced differently
in "image", "bass", "patent", "mirage", "many", "achive", "install".
So it is not a good idea to match "a" to the first vowel of Korean
alphabet(hangul) which is sternly fixed in pronunciation.
Instead "ah" would be a better choice, since "ah' is very stable in
pronunciation, and gives the correct one(as in "ah" "yah").
In the same manner, "oh' would be better than "o", "oo"(as
in "book" "cook") better than "u", "ur" better than "eo", and so on.
Actually, there exist a method which adopts such phonetically (of
course, not absolutely) invariant units like "ah", "oh", "oo" to
transcribe Korean. It's called "Pseudo-phonetic method" and was
devised by a Korean professor. A Korean "Anglicization" method, rather than a
Korean Romanization method.
I am not saying that we shoud give up MCT method and accept the PP
(Pseudo-phonetic) method rignt now. We need not replace "Se-oul"
with "Sur-wool", "Wang Guhn" with "Wahng Gurn", "Dae Jang Geum"
with "Dae Jahng Gum", "Chung Jung-Bu" with "Jurng Joong-Boo".
But I want to say that there EXISTS a better Korean transcription
method for English speakers, and the pronunciation based on the
method seems to be much closer to what koreans think correct pronunciation. At least the PP
method must be very useful to the English speakers learning Korean.
In the link below you can compare the MCT method and PP method, and
hear Korean native speaker's voice(It's me!).
www.koreanhistory.net/etc/anglicize.html
By the way, I have some extra time this month, and has been preparing
to open a humble web site dedicated to Korean history buffs in the
English speaking world. For the time being, it has only one royal
family tree, and one historical drama timeline chart(But you can
enjoy AOW and EWG theme music there). The site will contain very
basic information about Korean history especially for Korean
historical drama lovers.
www.koreanhistory.net
The name of the site will be "Korean History for Candy Lovers" which
means both "History is as sweet as a candy" and "I am a candy lover."
Are there any unexpected meanings to the name of the site? Your
comments will be much appreciated.
Alex,
I posted the synopses of the first 66 AOW episodes in the NEWS board of koreanhistory.net.
You can use it at your disposal. I will try to finish it up to the final episode.
Surely, the currently adoped "Korean Romanization" method by MCT
(Korean Ministry of Culture and Tourism)is very confusing both in
pronunciations and spells.
The biggest problem is that so called "Romanization" sometimes means
romanization into English, sometimes romanization into French,
sometimes into German, sometimes into Spanish, and so on.
Actually there does not exist such "Korean Romanization" method which
satisfies all of the distinctive languages speakers. Can we
expect "Dae Jang Geum" to be pronounced all the same way by English
speakers, German speakers, Italian speakers and so on?
If there exits something like that, It only exists in the weird
brains of some Korean linguists and MCT officials as an abstract idea.
We can only talk about anglicization, or frenchization, or
germanization of Korean, but can't talk about romanization.
You can see how "a, e, i, o, u" are pronounced in each language.
Even in English, they have very diverse ways of pronunciation. For
example, "a" is pronounced differently
in "image", "bass", "patent", "mirage", "many", "achive", "install".
So it is not a good idea to match "a" to the first vowel of Korean
alphabet(hangul) which is sternly fixed in pronunciation.
Instead "ah" would be a better choice, since "ah' is very stable in
pronunciation, and gives the correct one(as in "ah" "yah").
In the same manner, "oh' would be better than "o", "oo"(as
in "book" "cook") better than "u", "ur" better than "eo", and so on.
Actually, there exist a method which adopts such phonetically (of
course, not absolutely) invariant units like "ah", "oh", "oo" to
transcribe Korean. It's called "Pseudo-phonetic method" and was
devised by a Korean professor. A Korean "Anglicization" method, rather than a
Korean Romanization method.
I am not saying that we shoud give up MCT method and accept the PP
(Pseudo-phonetic) method rignt now. We need not replace "Se-oul"
with "Sur-wool", "Wang Guhn" with "Wahng Gurn", "Dae Jang Geum"
with "Dae Jahng Gum", "Chung Jung-Bu" with "Jurng Joong-Boo".
But I want to say that there EXISTS a better Korean transcription
method for English speakers, and the pronunciation based on the
method seems to be much closer to what koreans think correct pronunciation. At least the PP
method must be very useful to the English speakers learning Korean.
In the link below you can compare the MCT method and PP method, and
hear Korean native speaker's voice(It's me!).
www.koreanhistory.net/etc/anglicize.html
By the way, I have some extra time this month, and has been preparing
to open a humble web site dedicated to Korean history buffs in the
English speaking world. For the time being, it has only one royal
family tree, and one historical drama timeline chart(But you can
enjoy AOW and EWG theme music there). The site will contain very
basic information about Korean history especially for Korean
historical drama lovers.
www.koreanhistory.net
The name of the site will be "Korean History for Candy Lovers" which
means both "History is as sweet as a candy" and "I am a candy lover."
Are there any unexpected meanings to the name of the site? Your
comments will be much appreciated.
Alex,
I posted the synopses of the first 66 AOW episodes in the NEWS board of koreanhistory.net.
You can use it at your disposal. I will try to finish it up to the final episode.
