Criticism

Because of the dual use of apostrophes—the more common being for syllabic boundaries—it can be ambiguous for persons unfamiliar with McCune–Reischauer as to how a romanized Korean word is pronounced. For example, 뒤차기 → twich'agi, which consists of the syllables twi, ch'a and gi).

In the early days of the Internet, the apostrophe and breve were even omitted altogether for both technical and practical reasons, which made it impossible to differentiate the aspirated consonants k', t', p' and ch' from the unaspirated consonants k, t, p and ch, ㄴㄱ (n'g) from ㅇㅇ (ng), and the vowels ㅜ and ㅡ as well as ㅗ from ㅓ. As a result, the South Korean government adopted a revised system of romanization in 2000.^[6] However, Korean critics claimed that the Revised System fails to represent ㅓ and ㅡ in a way that is easily recognizable and misrepresents the way that the unaspirated consonants are actually pronounced.

Despite official adoption of the new system in South Korea, North Korea continues to use a version of McCune–Reischauer.

Vowels

Consonants

• The heterogeneous consonant digraphs (ㄳ, ㄵ, ㄶ, ㄺ, ㄻ, ㄼ, ㄽ, ㄾ, ㄿ, ㅀ, ㅄ) exist only as finals and are transcribed by their actual pronunciation.

1. ㅇ is an initial consonant before a vowel to indicate the absence of sound.
2. 쉬 is romanized shwi.
3. When the previous syllable ends in a vowel (for example, 아주 is romanized aju, not achu).
4. In Sino-Korean words, lt and lch, respectively.

For ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ, and ㅈ, the letters g, d, b, or j are used if voiced, k, t, p, or ch otherwise. Pronunciations such as those take precedence over the rules in the table above.

Examples

• Voiceless/voiced consonants
  • 가구 kagu
  • 등대 tŭngdae
  • 반복 panbok
  • 주장 chujang
• The initial consonant ㅇ is disregarded in romanization, since it is only used in order to indicate the absence of sound.
  • 국어 (pronounced [구거]) kugŏ (not kukŏ)
  • 믿음 (pronounced [미듬]) midŭm (not mitŭm)
  • 법인 (pronounced [버빈]) pŏbin (not pŏpin)
  • 촬영 (pronounced [촤령]) ch'waryŏng (not ch'walyŏng)
• r vs. l
  • r
    • Between two vowels: 가로 karo, 필요 p'iryo
    • Before initial ㅎ h: 발해 Parhae, 실험 sirhŏm
  • l
    • Before a consonant (except before initial ㅎ h), or at the end of a word: 날개 nalgae, 구별 kubyŏl, 결말 kyŏlmal
    • ㄹㄹ is written as ll: 빨리 ppalli, 저절로 chŏjŏllo
• Consonant assimilations
  • 독립 (pronounced [동닙]) tongnip
  • 법률 (pronounced [범뉼]) pŏmnyul
  • 않다 (pronounced [안타]) ant'a
  • 맞히다 (pronounced [마치다]) mach'ida
• Palatalizations
  • 미닫이 (pronounced [미다지]) midaji
  • 같이 (pronounced [가치]) kach'i
  • 굳히다 (pronounced [구치다]) kuch'ida

Personal names

The rules stated above are also applied in personal names, except between a surname and a given name. A surname and a given name are separated by a space, but multiple syllables within a surname or within a given name are joined without hyphens or spaces.

The original 1939 paper states the following:^[7]

The Romanization of Proper Names and Titles

Proper names like words should not be divided into syllables, as has often been done in the past. For example, the geographic term 光州 should be romanized Kwangju. Irregularities occurring in proper names such as in P'yŏngyang 平壤 which is colloquially pronounced P'iyang or P'eyang, should usually be ignored in romanizations intended for scholarly use.

Personal names demand special consideration. As in China, the great majority of surnames are monosyllables representing a single character, while a few are two character names. The given name, which follows the surname, usually has two characters but sometimes only one. In both two character surnames and two character given names the general rules of euphonic change should be observed, and the two syllables should be written together.

The problem of the euphonic changes between a surname and given name or title is very difficult. A man known as Paek Paksa 백 박사 (Dr. Paek) might prove to have the full name of Paeng Nakchun 백낙준 because of the assimilation of the final k of his surname and the initial n of his given name. The use in romanization of both Dr. Paek and Paeng Nakchun for the same person would result in considerable confusion. Therefore it seems best for romanizations purposes to disregard euphonic changes between surnames and given names or titles, so that the above name should be romanized Paek Nakchun.

For ordinary social use our romanization often may not prove suitable for personal names. Even in scholarly work there are also a few instances of rather well-established romanizations for proper names which might be left unchanged, just as the names of some of the provinces of China still have traditional romanizations not in accord with the Wade–Giles system. There is, for example, Seoul, which some may prefer to the Sŏul of our system. Another very important example is 李, the surname of the kings of the last Korean dynasty and still a very common Korean surname. Actually it is pronounced in the standard dialect and should be romanized I, but some may prefer to retain the older romanization, Yi, because that is already the familiar form. In any case the other romanizations of 李, Ri and Li, should not be used.

The original paper also gives McCune–Reischauer romanizations for a number of other personal names:

• Footnotes on page 1: Ch'oe Hyŏnbae (최현배), Chŏng Insŏp (정인섭), Kim Sŏn'gi (김선기)
• Footnotes on page 4: Ch'oe Namsŏn (崔南善 (최남선))
• Footnotes on page 20: Kim Yongun (金龍雲 (김용운)), O Sejun (吳世𤀹 (오세준))

North Korean variant

A variant of McCune–Reischauer is currently in official use in North Korea. The following are the differences between the original McCune–Reischauer and the North Korean variant:

• Aspirated consonants are represented by adding an h instead of an apostrophe.
  • However, ㅊ is transcribed as ch, not chh.
• ㅈ is transcribed as j even when it is voiceless.
• ㅉ is transcribed as jj instead of tch.
• ㄹㄹ is transcribed as lr instead of ll.
• ㄹㅎ is transcribed as lh instead of rh.
• When ㄹ is pronounced as ㄴ, it is still transcribed as r instead of n.
• ㄴㄱ and ㅇㅇ are differentiated by a hyphen.
  • But when ng is followed by y or w, a hyphen is not used, like the original system.
• In personal names, each syllable in a Sino-Korean given name is separated by a space with the first letter of each syllable capitalized (e.g. 안복철 An Pok Chŏl). Syllables in a native Korean name are joined without syllabic division (e.g. 김꽃분이 Kim KKotpuni).
  • However, it is not really possible to follow this rule because a certain name written in hangul can be a native Korean name, or a Sino-Korean name, or even both. For example, 보람 cannot only be a native Korean name,^[8] but can also be a Sino-Korean name (e.g. 寶濫).^[9] In some cases, parents intend a dual meaning: both the meaning from a native Korean word and the meaning from hanja.

The following table illustrates the differences above.

South Korean variant

A variant of McCune–Reischauer^[10][11] was in official use in South Korea from 1984 to 2000. The following are the differences between the original McCune–Reischauer and the South Korean variant:

• 시 was written as shi instead of the original system's si. When ㅅ is followed by ㅣ, it is realized as the [ɕ] sound (similar to the English [ʃ] sound (sh as in show)) instead of the normal [s] sound. The original system deploys sh only in the combination 쉬, as shwi.
• ㅝ was written as wo instead of the original system's wŏ in this variant. Because the diphthong w (ㅗ or ㅜ as a semivowel) + o (ㅗ) does not exist in Korean phonology, the South Korean government omitted a breve in wŏ.
• Hyphens were used to distinguish between ㄴㄱ and ㅇㅇ, between ㅏ에 and ㅐ, and between ㅗ에 and ㅚ in this variant system, instead of the apostrophes and ë in the original version. Therefore, apostrophes were used only for aspiration marks and ë was not used in the South Korean system.
• ㄹㅎ was written as lh instead of rh.
• Assimilation-induced aspiration by an initial ㅎ is indicated. ㄱㅎ is written as kh in the original McCune–Reischauer system and as k' in the South Korean variant.
• In personal names, each syllable in a given name was separated by a hyphen. The consonants ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ, and ㅈ right after a hyphen are written as k, t, p, and ch, respectively, even when they are voiced (e.g. 남궁동자 Namgung Tong-cha). But a hyphen can be omitted in non-Sino-Korean names (e.g. 한하나 Han Hana).
  • However, it is not really possible to follow this rule. See the #North Korean variant section above.

The following table illustrates the differences above.

ALA-LC variant

The ALA-LC romanization of Korean^[13] is based on but deviates from McCune–Reischauer.

• Unlike the original McCune–Reischauer, it addresses word division in seven pages of detail.
  • A postposition (or particle) is separated from its preceding word, even though the original McCune–Reischauer paper explicitly states that this should not be done.^[14]
• /ㄷ/ + /ㅆ/ is written as ts instead of ss.
• For personal names:
  • The surname 이 is written as Yi instead of I.
  • A hyphen is inserted between the syllables of a two-syllable given name only when it is preceded by a surname, with the sound change between the syllables indicated. The original McCune–Reischauer paper explicitly states that this also should not be done.^[15]
    • However, if a given name is three syllables long or is of non-Sino-Korean origin, the syllables are joined without syllabic division (e.g. 신사임당 Sin Saimdang, 김삿갓 Kim Satkat).

The following table illustrates the differences above.