[KS] Re: Transcription of Korean Currency

[Morgan Clippinger]

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Dear Kushibo:

In discussing "general acceptance," you mention the spellings for Korean 
cities used by the American Heritage Dictionary.

I believe one reason the American Heritage dictionary uses those spellings 
is because they are based, more or less, on the official US Government 
spellings as prescribed by the Board on Geographic Names (BGN).  (Although 
BGN uses the Mc-Cune-Reischauer system pretty much in its original form, 
most US Government agencies omit the diacritical marks.)

BGN is really the final arbiter in matters of spelling of geographic names, 
not just for Korean but for most if not all of the languages of the world.  
According to the US Geological Survey website, foreign names are processed 
by the Foreign Names Committee of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, which 
is supported by an Executive Secretary and staff furnished by the National 
Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA), U.S. Department of Defense.   Placenames 
in countries that do not use the Roman alphabet are romanized according to 
systems approved by the Board. The website notes that the Board "cooperates 
wherever possible with foreign governments to standardize foreign names for 
official U.S. purposes."

Although US government agencies use the M-R spellings for Korean placenames 
in their official documents without the diacritical marks, the official US 
Defense Department maps use the original M-R system with the breve and 
apostrophe.  The two US government gazetteers for North Korea and South 
Korea list close to 60,000 names of cities, towns, villages, and 
geographical features, plus their map coordinates.  I would think that to 
introduce any new system to replace M-R would inevitably involve the 
revision of the gazetteers of Korea and hundreds of official US maps, take 
years to plan and implement, and cost millions of dollars to accomplish.  It 
would also produce a great deal of confusion for the many US government 
agencies that deal with Korean issues—-not to mention other governments that 
use US government maps and gazetteers.  I would be much surprised if the new 
romanization system were to be warmly embraced outside of MoTC.

Regards,

Morgan E. Clippinger
Ashburn, VA


>From: k u s h i b o <jdh95 at hitel.net>
>Reply-To: korean-studies at iic.edu
>To: <korean-studies at iic.edu>
>Subject: Re: Transcription of Korean Currency
>Date: Sat, 28 Oct 2000 00:23:40 +0900
>
>Rudiger Frank wrote:
> > even though I have read the new romanization scheme of the MOCT as of 
>July
> > 2000, I could not find the answer to my question and so refer to your
> > expertise:
> >
> > How is the Korean currency to be transcribed according to the new
> > provisions? Would it be "Weon" or was "Won" chosen as one of the 
>exemptions
> > from the rule?
>
>The MoCT rules that I saw stated that words with a generally-accepted
>spelling will continue to be spelled that way (e.g., "kimchi" would not
>become "gimchi"). I would think that the "won" would be one of those words.
>
>This obviously would beg the question: what constitutes general acceptance?
>The American Heritage Dictionary lists Cheju, Chongjin (NK), Chonju, 
>Hungnam
>(NK), Inchon, Kwangju, Pusan, Sinuiju, Taejon, Taegu, and Wonsan, all of
>which would have new spellings according to MoCT, going against the general
>acceptance principle.
>
>I would submit that, if your question is regarding some academic paper, 
>that
>you forgo the MoCT system altogether. After Dr Lew Young-ick of Yonsei
>University spent a good portion of a recent lecture criticizing the "new"
>system, I informally talked to a few professors who stated they would
>continue to use McCune-Reischauer as they always had, because (a) they are
>confident the Korean government will eventually see the folly here, and (b)
>the MoCT does not control world academia related to Korea.
>
>K U S H I B O