ISO/TR 11941

ISO/TR 11941:1996 (Information and documentation — Transliteration of Korean script into Latin characters) is a Korean romanization system used in International Organization for Standardization (ISO). It is mainly used in character names in Unicode and ISO/IEC 10646.

The technical report was withdrawn in December 2013.

Transliteration rules

Consonants

HangulLatin
Method I
(North Korea)		Method II
(South Korea)
ㄱkg
ㅋkhk
ㄲkkgg
ㄷtd
ㅌtht
ㄸttdd
ㅂpb
ㅍphp
ㅃppbb
ㅈcj
ㅊchc
ㅉccjj
ㅅs
ㅆss
ㅎh
ㅇ'/ng
ㄴn
ㄹr/l
ㅁm

Vowels

HangulLatin
ㅏa
ㅓeo
ㅗo
ㅜu
ㅡeu
ㅣi
ㅐae
ㅔe
ㅚoe
ㅑya
ㅕyeo
ㅛyo
ㅠyu
ㅒyae
ㅖye
ㅘwa
ㅝweo
ㅟwi
ㅙwae
ㅞwe
ㅢyi

Apostrophe

The apostrophe (') is used for resolving ambiguity. It is used in the following cases.

  • Both Method I and Method II:
    • When ㅇ appears at the initial position of a non-initial syllable of a polysyllabic word (e.g. 앉아라 anc'ara/anj'ara)
    • When ㄲ, ㄸ, ㅃ, ㅉ, or ㅆ appears at the initial position of a non-initial syllable of a polysyllabic word (e.g. 아까 a'kka/a'gga)
  • Method I only:
    • When ㅋ, ㅌ, ㅍ, or ㅊ appears at the initial position of a non-initial syllable of a polysyllabic word (e.g. 애타다 ae'thata)

In fact, the above rules are always applied; they are applied even when there is no ambiguity (e.g. 아이 a'i, 흰떡 hyin'tteok/hyin'ddeog).

In character names in Unicode and ISO/IEC 10646

In Unicode and ISO/IEC 10646, both Method I and Method II are used for character names.

As the apostrophe is not allowed in character names, it is always omitted. For example, 옛이응 is yes'i'eung in ISO/TR 11941, but YESIEUNG in Unicode and ISO/IEC 10646 (e.g. U+114C ᅌ HANGUL CHOSEONG YESIEUNG).

Notes

  1. ↑ Not transliterated word-initially, ' (apostrophe) as a syllabic initial (always, except word-initially; e.g. 아이 a'i), ng as a syllabic final (e.g. 방 pang/bang).
  2. ↑ r as a syllabic initial, l as a syllabic final (e.g. 를 reul).