[KS] more on personal names & the initial consonant rule

Thu Dec 1 23:45:22 EST 2011

Dear Frank (if I may),

Thank you for the interesting question. Being a native speaker of Korean 
but not a linguist, I had learned something about but did not know as 
much as I should have of the complexity of the South Korean orthography 
for Chinese charactersstarting with l/r- . I think earlier responses to 
your inquiry, especially those by Mr. Hyoungbae Lee and Mr Hang Ryeol 
Na, give enough information about the orthography. Just in case you or 
anyone else might be interested in more details, let me mention some 
works that I managed to skim through in the meantime:

1.http://www.hangul.or.kr/12b-1-5.htm

2.Iksop Lee & S. Robert Ramsey, The Korean Language (State University of 
New York Press, 2000), pp. 73-74 (“restrictions on initial constants’).

3.Samuel E. Martin, A Reference Grammar of Korean (Charles E. Tuttle, 
1992), pp. 15-17 (initial l- and r-)

(1), which is written in Korean, is Hangeul Foundation’s site explaining 
the Standard South Korean orthography (the “Unified System”) relating to 
the initial constant rule (두음법칙). (2) gives an account of the 
phonetic phenomenon that underlies the SK orthography. (3), which 
considers both the SK and NK orthographic systems, gives a more detailed 
account of the phenomenon, and of exceptions or inconsistencies of the 
systems.

All three works note that there are special problems with writing in 
Hangeul Korean personal names, most of which are based on Chinese 
characters. Your case of金昌烈illustrates the problem well. If one 
applies the SK orthography, it should be, I think, 김창렬. While some 
with the name write the name in this way, others (including, it seems, 
the painter) may write it as김창열. Given the circumstance, it is 
understandable that some sites write even the name of the painter 김창열 
as김창렬.

Incidentally, the Hangeul site (1) holds that the SK “Unified System” is 
not meant to (or should not) dictate how people should write (or 
pronounce) their names, which seems reasonable to me.

Please let me know if you have any further questions I might be able to 
answer. If anyone on the list cannot read (1) and have no easy access to 
(2) or (3), I will be happy to help them to access relevant portions of 
(2) and (3).

Byeong-uk Yi

P.S. This is my first posting on the list, which I recently joined in 
andgreatlyenjoyed. I wish to thank all other members.

On 12/1/2011 9:37 PM, koreanstudies-request at koreaweb.ws wrote:
> Subject:
> Re: [KS] -열 / -렬 (question to linguists & Korean native speakers)
> From:
> Hyoungbae Lee <hyoungl at Princeton.EDU>
> Date:
> Thu, 1 Dec 2011 16:03:22 +0000
>
> To:
> Korean Studies Discussion List <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
>
>
> Right. This is a Hancha-to-Han'gŭl orthography and pronunciation issue.
>
> There is a rule especially for 렬 and 률 in the current 한글맞춤법.
>
> When 렬 or 률 is preceded by a vowel or ㄴ(n), it should be read and 
> written as 열 or 율.
>
> When preceded by the other consonants, 렬 or 률 remains the same.
>
> Some examples:
>
> 나열(羅列)vs. 직렬(直列)
>
> 분열(分裂) vs. 결렬(決裂)
>
> 선율(旋律) vs. 외형률(外形律)
>
> 실패율(失敗率) vs. 성공률(成功率)
>
> Since this rule is a part of 두음법칙, it does not apply to Hancha of 
> which the original sound is 열.
>
> Thus 熱or 悅is always 열.
>
> Also note that the North Korean orthography does not have this rule.
>
> For example, 規律 and旋律 are 규율 and 선율in South Korea, but 규률and 
> 선률in North Korea.
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> Hyoungbae Lee
>
> Korean Studies Librarian
>
> East Asian Library and the Gest Collection
>
> Rm 307A, 33 Frist Campus Center
>
> Princeton University
>
> Princeton, NJ 08544
>
> Telephone: (609) 258-0417
>
> Fax: (609) 258-4573
>
> E-mail: HYOUNGL at PRINCETON.EDU
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: koreanstudies-bounces at koreaweb.ws 
> [mailto:koreanstudies-bounces at koreaweb.ws] On Behalf Of Frank Hoffmann
> Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2011 5:07 AM
> To: koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
> Subject: Re: [KS] -열 / -렬 (question to linguists & Korean native 
> speakers)
>
> This is not a question that relates to transcription ... at least not
>
> from Korean to Western lanuages, rather Hanja to Han'gŭl.
>
> Any orthographic rules for such cases?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Frank
>
>
> Part 1.2
>
> Subject:
> Re: [KS] -열 / -렬 (question to linguists & Korean native speakers)
> From:
> Frank Hoffmann <hoffmann at koreaweb.ws>
> Date:
> Thu, 01 Dec 2011 11:18:21 -0500
>
> To:
> koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
>
>
> Thanks for your time. However, *my* question is still open.
>
> 1. The North/South difference was not the issue ... I tried to expain 
> that.
> 2. Transcription into the Latin alpahbet was not the issue either.
> 3. 金昌烈 was just an example (although a good one, and one where this 
> just came up again).
>
> Let me try again -- and let me say sorry to not have been explicit 
> enough:
> Is there any sort of orthographic rule in SOUTH Korea of how to 
> transcribe Hanja that can have initials ㄹ or ㅇ (e.g. 烈) when those 
> appear in personal names? I apologize if I am not using the correct 
> terminology. Therefore again my EXAMPLE (just an example):
> The painter 金昌烈 seems to prefer writing his own name as 김창열 -- 
> that is at least how it appears on his home page at 
> http://www.kimtschang-yeul.com/html/profile.html Yet, many websites 
> and also books I have refer to him as 김창렬 -- see for example, 
> another entry on his very own home page 
> http://www.kimtschang-yeul.com/html/board/read.asp?id=243&read=8779 
> suddenly changes this to "김창렬".
> Or see here:
> http://www.chungjark.com/artists-kimchangryul.htm
> It seems 50:50.
> The same is true for other people with an identical name ... and also 
> for others with other Hanja parts of their name were these 
> alternatives are possible.
>
> There are no orthographic rules then?
> And as a 2nd add-on questions: if there are no such rules, there are 
> as a consequence none for how to handle that when we mention such 
> names in our writings in English, French, German ..., yes? (Fine with 
> me, just wanted to make sure I am not missing anything I should know.)
>
> Best,
> Frank

-- 
Byeong-uk Yi
Department of Philosophy
University of Toronto
http://philosophy.utoronto.ca/people/faculty/byeong-uk-yi

Plurality in Classifier Languages
http://www.kyobobook.co.kr/product/detailViewKor.laf?mallGb=KOR&ejkGb=KOR&barcode=9788957268933
ISBN 978-89-5726-893-3

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://koreanstudies.com/pipermail/koreanstudies_koreanstudies.com/attachments/20111201/3a223ebd/attachment.html>