Loanword Transcription Rules

In South Korea, the transcription of terms or names from other languages into hangul (the Korean alphabet) are governed by the Loanword Transcription Rules (외래어 표기법 外來語表記法 Oeraeeo Pyogibeop), which were introduced on 7 January 1986 by the former Ministry of Culture and Education (문교부 文敎部 Mun’gyobu). These included rules for transcribing English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, and Chinese into hangul.

Over the next two decades, the Loanword Transcription Rules were expanded to include additional languages. In 1992, rules were added for Polish, Czech, Serbo-Croatian, Romanian, and Hungarian. In 1995 came rules for Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish, in 2004 for Malay/Indonesian, Thai, and Vietnamese, and finally in 2005 for Portuguese, Dutch, and Russian.

If you are looking for more detailed information, you can read the more in-depth Examination of the Loanword Transcription Rules, including a history of transcription into Korean, Korean phonology and alphabet, and how different sounds are transcribed.

In addition to these official rules, there are also unofficial guidelines for transcribing other languages not covered. The introduction of the Loanword Transcription Rules in 1986 was followed in the same year by the publication of Loanword Transcription Examples (외래어 표기 용례집 外來語表記用例集 Oeraeeo Pyogi Yongnyejip), which included some additional principles used for transcribing English and German as well as Latin, Greek, and Russian (the last of which would be superseded in 2005 by the introduction of rules for Russian) along with other languages not covered by the rules. While the Transcription Principles of Loanword Transcription Examples are not part of the official Loanword Transcription Rules, and parts of them have been superseded by the subsequent addition to the Loanword Transcription Rules, they nevertheless continue to be taken into consideration (with some modifications) in deciding standard transcriptions, so they are also included here.

These pages contain unofficial translations of these rules, grouped together by language to make it more user-friendly. This departs from the original structure of the rules, which has the transcription tables for all languages grouped together under chapter II and the detailed transcription rules for all languages under chapter III. Links to the relevant original Loanword Transcription Rules in Korean on the National Institute of the Korean Language website are provided on each page. The Transcription Principles of Loanword Transcription Examples were also formerly included in the National Institute of the Korean website, but they seem to have been removed in a recent update; links are provided instead to the mirrors of these rules on the website for Gyeoremal-keunsajeon (겨레말 큰사전), a Korean dictionary.

The original structure of the rules is provided below for reference. For ease of reference, the chapter numbers are given in Roman numerals and the section numbers in Arabic numerals, although in the original both are given in Arabic numerals. The first five chapters of Transcription Principles of Loanword Transcription Examples consist of explanatory notes specific to the work that it was prepared for, so only chapters VI-X that deal with hangul transcription are shown.

Loanword Transcription Rules

Transcription Principles of Loanword Transcription Examples

Loanword Transcription Rules | Examination | Principles | English, German, French | Spanish | Italian | Japanese | Chinese | Polish | Czech | Serbo-Croatian | Romanian | Hungarian | Swedish | Norwegian | Danish | Malay/Indonesian | Thai | Vietnamese | Portuguese | Dutch | Russian | Other languages, Latin, Greek