Currently, the Korean language is romanised using a system called "revised Romanisation," in which all of the Hangeul syllables have corresponding letters or diphthongs. This is great, but I believe the choice of written diphthongs not only make it hard to guess the pronounciation of words, but also make the language look a bit "ugly" to outsiders (in my opinion.) Specifically, I take issue with the fact that "e" is used for some of the written diphthongs. Although I understand the logic of it - if you make an "e" sound (in English) right before the corresponding vowel, you might get something a little close to the Korean pronounciation. However, to a random tourist coming into Korea, they'll probably be very confused and give up guessing the pronounciation.
What's more is that many people don't even stick to the rules of this Romanisation. I'll often see Korean written in so many different ways - and many Koreans don't know how to convert Hangeul to its Romanised counterpart (who can blame them? Hangeul can be learned in one hour.)
So how can we fix this? What system could we introduce so that anyone reading romanised Korean could make a better guess of the pronounciation?
We can keep the current rules more or less the same, but with a few major changes:
Suggestion #1: use accents instead of written diphthongs
I would suggest first of all to use 'accents,' those which are used in many European languages, to distinguish different vowels. Instead of eo, why not ó (or ò)? We can make some really simple adjustments, as such:
- 어 -> ó as in Ólgul (얼굴)
- 으 -> ú as in Hangúl (한글)
- 외 -> ê as in Hêdópbap (회덮밥)
- 애 -> é as in Éin (애인) (though, to be honest, the currently used "ae" doesn't look so bad)
Of course, the more awkward 의 can become í when it is pronounced as u-i (ɰi) (at the beginning of a word,) but should be e when pronounced like 에 (as a possessive). When pronounced like 이 (in the middle of a word, or at the end when not a possessive, for some dialects) we should retain the í accent just to clear any ambiguity. So,
- 의사 -> Ísa
- 송희 -> Songhíbut
- 나의 -> Nae
Suggestion #2: use apostrophes for double (tense) consonants, but only when written in the original Hangúl
An idea semi-stolen from an older version of Hangúl romanisation (McCune; although in that it was used for aspirated consonants,) we could use something like an apostrophe to signify tense consonants. Simply writing two consonants can look a little awkward in latin characters, and again put off people trying to guess the pronounciation.
- Bballi (빨리) -> B'alli (note ll is not tense, so an apostrophe is not used)
- Jjimjjilbang (찜찔방) -> J'imj'ilbang
One exception for double consonants is that double "s" should be written as double "s," otherwise things might look a little weird. (했어? -> Haessó? vs. Haes'ó?)
Suggestion #3: Glottalised Bachim should written as their counterpart
꽃 (flower) becomes G'ot, not G'och. 있다 should be Itda, not Issda (which I've seen written many times.)
Suggestion #4: Only write Bachim rules when the pronounciation changes significantly
Finally, one of the more difficult concepts of Hangúl: the bachim rules. In Hangúl, the pronounciation of one syllable can change based on the preceeding styllable's bachim. The bachim is basically the last consonant sound of a syllable. Sometimes the rules can get really weird. For instance, 같이, writen as Gati (or kati), is actually pronounced Kachi. This is because, technically, if you were to pronounce each syllable individually as a separate word and glottalised it, the tongue naturally kind of wants to replace that 't' sound with something else (I guess for Koreans it was the 'ch' sound.)
In these cases, I think the pronounciation should be reflected in the writing, but in other cases, it's not neccessary. Another reason is that bachim rules can be a little ambiguous, some people might implement some rules that others' don't - especially depending on their age and what region they're from.
So, gati (같이) and gotip (꽃잎) should be written as gachi and g'otnip.
Changes of nasal consonants could also be reflected (e.g ibnida should be written as imnida.)
Suggestion #5: write particles after a dash
Words can get very very long in Korean. Korean is an agglutinative which means words and grammar particles are added together to make very long words. To help combat this, noun particles/cases/whatever you want to call them should be distinguished with a dash. For exmaple, Nanún -> Na-nún. However, this should be an optional rule.
Example sentence using the new rules
Jó-nún Jék Imnida. Hangúl Romanisation-ún munje-ga manhún got gatasó jean-i myótgé issúmnida.
저는 잭입니다. 한글 romanisation은 문제가 많은 것 같아서 제안이 몇개 있습니다.
Now I will attempt to write that roughly using the old rules and an educated guess. Uhhh…
Cheoneun Jaekimnida. Hanguel romanisationeun munjaega manheun got kataseo jaeani myeotgae issumnida(?)
Maybe try to show these two sentences to someone who has never seen Korean before, and see which one s/he pronounces more accurately ;) Probably, the one with my suggestions included.
That's all. I am not a Korean person so I hope I am not butchering the language in any way. But I do think Korean would be a lot less scary to foreigners and tourists if the Romanisation was a little easier to read. Readability is important!
The end.