[KS] Re: romanization '99

sangoak sangoak at snu.ac.kr
Tue May 11 03:41:43 EDT 1999


Dear Henny,

It is really good to hear from you again.
As for using q (plus f, v, w, x & z) for the Korean transliteration,
there is
already a proposal as follows.

Examples: (the Korean national flag): Thxgwggi   (the name of the
South-western province): Jvnla

I personally do not like to take this kind of economy-oriented but
ugly-looking transliteration system as a common measure. One can fiddle
with these unused keys but we can do better without them.

Yours,

Sang-Oak

bus at henny-savenije.demon.nl wrote:

> Dear Sang-Oak Lee,
>
> If that's the only problem than I would like to plead for a
> transliteration
> on one by one, where the foreigners just have to get used to the
> "strange"
> (But only in their eyes) of the Korean alphabet. Look for instance at
> the
> Chinese pinyin, where the Q for instance reflects something totally
> else
> than in the "normal" alphabet. I see no reason why Koreans should
> adjust
> themselves to rules of foreigners, since I have the tenancy to think
> that
> since there more contacts with Americans one should conform to
> Americans. A
> one to one system is the most straightforward if there is  a one to
> one
> system, including the problems with pronunciation, for once I think
> foreigners should comply to what is typical Korean and not the other
> way
> around. I think King Sojon would turn around in his grave if he heard
> about
> this sell out of "his" alphabet. I think it's fine to include the
> missing
> characters of the Korean alphabet again, to make pronunciation of
> foreign
> words easier. The other way around I guess is even a Korean matter,
> but I
> would plead for a Koreanization of the Roman alphabet and not the
> other way
> around.
>
> Again not even the English use the alphabet in a one to one way.
> consider
> goal and jail, frail, whale, way, mail and male, all pronounced in the
> same
> way. Consider photography and fine were two letters present the same
> sound
> and I could go on and on. I think it's totally acceptable to make a
> unique
> use of the roman alphabet as many countries already went before you
> (consider Turkish). The th sound is uniquely English so why should
> Korea
> conform to English speakers if they have problems with the
> pronunciation,
> please that's their problem, not yours.
>
> I already once pleaded for the course of Korean names, I will do so
> even
> vehemently for a unique way of using the roman alphabet. I think Asia
> is
> already conforming too much to the American way in many ways so I so
> see no
> reason why they even should do that with their names and their way of
> Romanization.
>
> Sincerely yours
>
> Henny
>
> At 12:23 PM 5/7/99 , you wrote:
> >Dear Mr. Savenije,
> >
> >Thank you very much for your response. I agree with you in many
> points.
> >However, your concept of a one to one system is quite different from
> >mine. My usage is the really reciprocal tranliteration between two
> >writing systems. The MR system that reflects actual pronunciations
> >cannot be transliterated in a one to one fashion. For instance,
> >romainzed 'sangman' in MR could be either 'sangman' or 'sakman' in
> their
> >Korean spelling of names.
> >It will take some time to put my article here in 'Korean-studies'
> >because of a technical problem, but I asked Prof. Robert Fouser to
> post
> >his article here first since his is very nice to have an overview of
> >whole problem areas.
> >
> >Sincerely yours,
> >
> >Sang-Oak Lee
>
> -----------------------------
> Henny  (Lee Hae Kang)
>
> Feel free to visit
> http://www.henny-savenije.demon.nl/index2.htm
> and feel the thrill of Hamel discovering Korea (1653-1666)





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