[KS] Re: Romanization

[Michael Choi]

You're not the only one who thought the 'eo' represented the 'O' sound. The 
best example is the last name Suh or SEO. If we went by the French 
transcription, it would be 'SE.' There's plenty of other examples, but I 
can't think of them right now.

Sincerely,
Michael Choi

>From: Tae Yang Kwak <tkwak at fas.harvard.edu>
>Reply-To: korean-studies at mailbase.ac.uk
>To: korean-studies at mailbase.ac.uk
>Subject: Re: Romanization
>Date: Thu, 6 Jul 2000 00:21:03 -0400 (EDT)
>
>
>On a related note, about the spelling of Seoul.  Now I always thought it
>was Seo-ul, with the 'eo' representing the 'O' vowel sound.  But I am told
>that Seoul is actually a French transcription and not English.  It's
>actually Se-oul, with the 'e' representing 'O', and 'ou' representing 'u'.
>That's why some late-nineteenth cent. (pre-colonial era) English texts use
>Chosen.  Although at first glance it looks like transcription of Japanese
>and not Korean, it's that French 'e' = 'O'.
>
>All trivia I suppose.
>taeyang
>_____________________________________
>Tae Yang Kwak <tkwak at fas.harvard.edu>
>02-3277-5821
>
>On Thu, 6 Jul 2000, Brother Anthony wrote:
>
> > I find it very hard to understand why so many ordinary Koreans feel that
> > "eo" is the most natural way of representing the 'O' sound of Seoul
> > unless it is precisely that they have grown up with that spelling and it
> > has fixed itself as their model. Which makes me wonder just where that
> > spelling came from, and why the French have put an accent over the 'e'?
> > Does anyone know? Please?
> > Brother Anthony
> > S(e?)ogang University
> >
>

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