[KS] Variable Romanization of 년(年) in McCune-Reischauer

[Frank Hoffmann]

Thank you Werner, for making the blind see.
Guess in my own case the very simple fact causing the slight confusion 
was that I did not realize that 年 alone can be pronounced yŏn. As you 
point out, it hardly ever appears without being bound to some other 
word or year, is mostly a compound. In addition, if I follow you 
correctly, even in South Korea do people even then not pronounce it 
yŏn. (Correct me, if I got anything wrong.) 

If so, then is this not one of those many cases where the written 
representation (and the rules) of language do not match present 
practice? That example in the Library of Congress ruleset is then just 
some "theoretical" case we never see?
And is the LG guide's example of "1996 년  =  1996-yŏn" not simply 
incorrect? In that example the year 1996 and 년 are treated as if they 
were not two compounds, while in practice 년 takes that role, like a 
"unit" complementing a numeral. No?

Forgive me if I should have gotten it all wrong ... just asking 
questions.

By the way, do you guys know this useful website? 
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki
See this link:  http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%B9%B4
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/年)
Very useful in general.

Quoting Werner:
> Note that this problem arises only in sino-kor words.

THAT makes total sense. So it is basically a changing "deal" of how to 
"call" certain characters properly, with local variations also 
(north/south) of what the deal is at any given time.


Best,
Frank