Problems of Hangeul Romanization into Slovene

• Published in: Acta Linguistica Asiatica
• Main Authors: ZIRALDO, Iva, KROFIČ, Jasmina
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: Slovenian
• Published: Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete / Ljubljana University Press, Faculty of Arts 2014
• Subjects: Hangeul; romanization of Korean; McCune-Reischauer system; revized Romanization; Korean proper names; problems of romanization of Korean; latinizacija korejščine; sistem McCune-Reischauer; prenovljen sistem latinizacije; korejska lastna imena; problematika latinizacije korejščine; sami
• Online Access: https://revije.ff.uni-lj.si/ala/article/view/2213; https://doi.org/10.4312/ala.3.3.71-84

Slovenian grammar does not deal with Korean language and words of Korean origin. Since the number of Korean words in newspapers and other media in Slovenia is increasing, and different writers romanize these words in different ways, a need exists for a uniform transliteration system as soon as possible in order to avoid misapprehensions.The romanization of Korean is not a problem only in Slovenia but also in Korea. There are several systems of romanization. At the moment the Republic of Korea is using the Revised Romanization system, which was approved in the year 2000, while the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea uses the McCune-Reischauer system. The Republic of Korea stopped using the McCune-Reischauer system because of the inconvenient usage of diacritics and apostrophes. The problem of romanization of Korean consists not only in the difficulty of transcription but also the fact that not everyone follows the approved system. When writing proper names typically none of the existing systems is followed. Geographical names are written according to the Revised Romanization system, while names of universities, festivals etc., which include geographical names as well, are still written according to the McCune-Reischauer system.Koreans are aware of the problem of romanization and recently there has been new discussion in the Republic of Korea about another revision and the unification of the romanization of personal names. There is, however, an established convention according to which each individual writes their own name as wished. Due to specific morphophonological characteristics of the Korean language, consistent Romanization is impossible without adequate knowledge of the language.Since there are currently few Korean words used in Slovenian language an opportunity exists to establish an agreed spelling convention without the excessive revision that might be required later. Slovenski pravopis korejskega jezika in iz korejščine prevzetih besed ne obravnava. Ker se v časopisih in drugje pojavlja vedno več tujk iz korejščine in jih avtorji zapisujejo po svoje, je potrebno zapis čim prej poenotiti, da ne bi prišlo do nesporazumov.Latinizacija korejskega jezika ni problem le v Sloveniji, temveč tudi v Koreji. Obstaja več različnih sistemov latinizacije. Trenutno je v Republiki Koreji v veljavi prenovljeni sistem iz leta 2000, v Demokratični ljudski republiki Koreji pa še vedno sistem McCune-Reischauer, katerega so na jugu zaradi prevelike uporabe diakritičnih znakov in apostrofov opustili. Problem pri latinizaciji korejskega jezika ni samo, da je vse glasove težko prečrkovati v latinico, ampak tudi, da se vsi ne držijo veljavnega sistema. Tako se pri zapisu lastnih imen večinoma ne držijo nobenega sistema, krajevna imena so zapisana po prenovljenem sistemu, imena raznih prireditev, univerz itd., v katerih se prav tako pojavljajo krajevna imena, so le-ta zapisana še po starem sistemu.Korejci se problema latinizacije svojega jezika zavedajo in Republiki Koreji znova potekajo razprave, da bi prenovili sistem in ga poenotili, predvsem kar se tiče zapisa lastnih imen. Podpirava pa pravilo, naj se lastna imena Korejcev in Korejk v slovenskem jeziku zapisujejo tako, kot jih zapisujejo sami. Zaradi morfofonoloških posebnosti brez primernega poznavanja korejskega jezika latiniziranje ni možno.Glede na to, da je v slovenščini število prevzetih besed iz korejskega jezika obvladljivo, bi se bilo smiselno čim prej dogovoriti, kako bomo te besede pravilno zapisovali.