[KS] Revised Romanization Detailed Guidelines?

[Richard McBride]

Dear Prof. Tanter and Colleagues


One of the curious and/or frustrating decisions of the Revised Romanization System is that no standardized rules apply when it comes to names.  The way a living or historical person, such as Park Chung Hee or Syngman Rhee, spelled his or her name is the appropriate way to romanize it using the RR system.  This works okay for some people, or perhaps many people in the modern era.  A greater problem arises when trying to romanize names of historical Koreans.  How do you romanize their surnames systematically?


I published a paper in the Korea Journal back in 2005 and had to use the RR system.  The editors of the journal at that time said that although there were no standardized rules, they wanted to do the following with certain surnames. "Pak" ? was to be "Park" (not "Bak"), "Kim" ? was to be "Kim" (not "Gim"), and "Yi" ? was to be "Lee" (not "I").  They did not have a position on other surnames to my remembrance.  However, because many Koreans surnamed "U" ? romanize it as "Woo," I understand that reasoning.  Now, having the opportunity to evaluate many manuscripts each year, I see no standardized or systematic way surnames are organized.  I have seen Park, Bak, Bark, and Pak for ?, and I have seen Kim and Gim for ?, and I have seen Lee, Yi, I, and Rhee for ?, although I can understand and appreciate Ri ? for a contemporary person from North Korea.


My point is that the creators/promoters of the RR system, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, never decided on such issues.  This being so, we will continue to see wide variation in the use of the RR system.  It will be continue to be frustrating.


Best

Rick McBride

Richard D. McBride II, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Chair of History
Brigham Young University-Hawaii #1970
55-220 Kulanui Street
La'ie, HI 96762-1294
Phone:  808-675-3593

________________________________
From: Koreanstudies <koreanstudies-bounces at koreanstudies.com> on behalf of Tanter, Dr. Marcy <TANTER at tarleton.edu>
Sent: Thursday, December 8, 2016 6:52 PM
To: Korean Studies Discussion List
Subject: Re: [KS] Revised Romanization Detailed Guidelines?


As someone who has not studied this at all, I'm wondering who decided and agreed on romanization? For example, why is "Pak" translated as "Park"? why is "Oo" "Woo"? I'm learning Hangeul very slowly and on my own, so sometimes I get confused.


Professor  Marcy L. Tanter
Chair, Speaker Symposium Committee
Professor of English
Department of English and Languages
Box T0300
Tarleton State University
Stephenville, TX 76402
________________________________

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