[KS] romanization '99

[sangoak]

Dear Korean Studies Colleagues:

Perhaps you may remember the lively discussion on romanization of Korean

that took place on this list in spring and summer of 1997.  The
discussion
was, in fact, initiated by an English student of mine who was taking one
of
my advanced Korean language and culture courses at SNU.  In that course,
I
introduced the National Academy of the Korean Language's (NAKL) proposal
for
a new romanization system.

Since then, the NAKL's proposal was shelved because of a lack of public
consensus and uneasiness about the economic crisis in the winter of
1997.  The
problems that caused the NAKL to take a new look at the romanization,
however, remain, and the NAKL has decided to re-open inquiry into the
issue.
I have recently been invited to participate in drafting a new proposal
and
would like to solicit the opinions of overseas scholars of Korean
studies
throughout the process.

Before continuing, I would like to make my position clear.  In 1983, the

National Academy of Sciences (NAS) asked three phonologists to look at
the
romanization issue.  At the time, I was the only one who advocated the
McCune-Reischauer (MR) system.  A slightly modified version of MR was
adopted as the official romanization in 1984.  Though I supported MR at
the
time, I had strong reservations about the use of diacritical marks in
the
system.  The inconvenience of diacritical marks and the problems they
pose
for computerization were behind the NAKL's efforts to develop a new
system
in 1997.  For more information on my views, please see the special issue
of
the "Korea Journal" (vol. 22. no. 8) that I edited in 1982 and
especially
my article "The Second Best Compromise: The NAS Proposal on Romanization
of
Korean."

Though many of you were unhappy with the way the NAKL handled the debate
in
1997, I hope that this does not dissuade you from offering your advice
at
this time.  I would like you to consider the merits of two systems: one
based on the principles of MR for proper names and street signs, and
another
based on a one-to-one correspondence between a Roman and a Han'gul
letter
for databases, computer corpora, and other uses where a one-to-one
correspondence is called for.  For years, Korea has had two systems de
facto: MR and the 1959 Ministry of Education (MOE) system.  Many people,

particularly native speakers of Korean, find MR hard to use, wheras
foreigners
find MOE hard to pronounce, so we need to go beyond the limitations of
each of
these systems.  In particular, I hope that our discussion will lead
toward a
break through in which consonants are used in a similar way in both
systems
so as to avoid discrepancies such as p:t:k versus b:d:g.  Such a break
through will help users feel reasonably comfortable using dual systems.
I
would also like to hear any other suggestions that you may have.  (In
making
your suggestions, please keep in mind, however, that the NAKL is public
institution and is committed to improving romanization of Korean, so
maintaining the current system in its entirety is the least desirable
option.)

Please feel free to post your comments to the list, or send them to me
at
sangoak at snu.ac.kr.  I will use your comments in research reports, so if
you
send me private comment, please attach a small note giving me permission
to
quote your message in a research report.

Thank you very much for your help.

With best wishes,

Sang-Oak Lee
Professor of Korean Linguistics, Department of Korean Language and
Literature
College of Humanities, Seoul National University
Tel. (O)82-2-880-6051 (H)82-2-815-7164  Fax. (O)82-2-878-1246
e-mail: sangoak at snu.ac.kr   sangoak at hotmail.com




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