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An Early 20th Century Korean Phonetic Alphabet

Article · September 2014

DOI: 10.22425/jul.2014.15.2.115

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 John Stonham & Hyehyun Lee 115

Journal of Universal Language 15-2

September 2014, 115-146

An Early 20th Century

Korean Phonetic Alphabet*

John Stonham & Hyehyun Lee

Pukyong National University, Korea

Abstract
In this paper, we examine early efforts in English language
education in Korea, focusing on a student’s glossary of Chinese
characters that contains Mandarin Chinese, English, and Japanese
glosses of the meanings of each character. This book, the Ahak
Pyeon, employs a modified version of the Korean Hangul writing
system in order to phonetically render the English words, thereby
facilitating the acquisition of English pronunciation for Korean
learners. We examine the system proposed in this work in detail,
noting issues of phonetic accuracy and clarity and assess it with

* We would like to thank Eun-Sook Kim for commenting on numerous versions of this
paper. Our thanks also to the anonymous reviewers and the managing editor for their many
useful comments on our submission.

John Stonham
English Language and Literature, Pukyong National University, Busan, Korea
Phone: +82516295385; Email: stonham@pknu.ac.kr

Hyehyun Lee
English Language and Literature, Pukyong National University, Busan, Korea
Phone: +82516295385; Email: hyehyun31@daum.net

Received June 23, 2014; Revised August 28, 2014; Accepted September 11, 2014.
116 An Early 20th Century Korean Phonetic Alphabet

respect to its suitability as a linguistically-sophisticated phonetic

transcription system suitable for the representation of English
teaching. In this paper we discuss the principles employed in the
Ahak Pyeon to render a reasonably accurate phonetic
characterization of the pronunciation of the English words
included in the book as well as a discussion of the challenges
faced by the developer of the system. We discuss this work in
terms of the general adaptability of the original Hangul writing
system, the creativity of the revised system, and the potential of
this system for developing phonemic awareness among Korean
learners of English.
Keywords: English education, writing systems, phonetic transcription,
Ji Seok-Yeong, Hangul

1. Introduction

Prior to the beginning of the 20th century there was virtually no

use or even knowledge of English in Korea, with the possible
exception of some early missionary work in the late 19th century.
Early native efforts at English language education were limited
and often undocumented.
In this paper, we examine one of the earliest of these efforts,
a student’s glossary of Chinese characters that contains glosses of
the meanings of each character in Mandarin Chinese, Japanese,
and, most importantly for this study, English transcriptions in a
novel and, we will maintain, linguistically-sophisticated phonetic
rendering. The book is entitled the Ahak Pyeon (henceforth AP),
and was published in the first decade of the twentieth century
under the direction of a Korean medical doctor and educator, Ji
Seok-Yeong (1855-1935, henceforth JSY). Our view is that this
work paved the way for later research and application in English
language teaching, setting a standard in terms of the degree of
linguistic sophistication it provided in the field of education at the
 John Stonham & Hyehyun Lee 117

time. We furthermore maintain that his contribution has not been

fully appreciated in the field due to a lack of understanding of its
sophistication and difficulty in terms of accessibility/availability of
the original work.
In view of the fact that JSY’s AP is written in Korean, the
international community has, for the most part, been precluded
from accessing it, resulting in very little previous research on it
outside of Korea. Han (2009) has discussed the East Asian
connection in the AP and Lee (2009) compares the Chinese
characters in the AP with those of the Jeonjamun and the
Jeongmongyu-eo. Han (2007, 2010) examine the representation of
foreign words in various media, while Shin (2000) studies the use
and nature of the Korean writing system in the early 20th century.
Very little of this bears directly on the use of Hangul as a
transcription system for the representation of English. Given what
we will discuss concerning the AP in this paper, it is surprising
that more scholars have not expressed any interest in this aspect
of the work of JSY, which is contemporary with the development
of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).
In what follows, we will first present what we know about the
author and other contributors to the AP, followed by a brief look
at the format of the book, then discuss its layout and provide a
sample entry to illustrate its structure and organization. We will
then examine the linguistic features of the English entries,
focusing on the innovative use of an extended Hangul alphabet in
order to render features of English that are not easily represented
in the standard Hangul alphabet.
Based on this analysis, we suggest that this transcription system
demonstrates a high degree of linguistic sophistication and a good
understanding of phonetics, in addition to a sound knowledge of
the phonetic capacity and extensibility of the Hangul writing
system.
118 An Early 20th Century Korean Phonetic Alphabet

2. JSY and the Ahak Pyeon

The attribution of authorship of the AP is somewhat confused

in the literature. Jeong Yag-yong (henceforth JYY), the famous
early 19th century Korean educator, also known by the pen-name
Dasan, is often regarded as the author of the AP, most probably
due to his earlier work, the Myongmul Sohak (Jeong 1805,
henceforth MMSH), upon which the AP is clearly based and also
due to the mention of his name made in the introduction to the
AP. This reference to JYY is an acknowledgement of his
contributions to the reorganization of the Chinese characters in an
order more accessible to Korean learners than an accurate
description of his involvement in the later work. JYY had been
dead for over 70 years when the AP was published. Hence, the
relationship between his work and the AP is mainly in this order
of presentation of the Chinese characters, an innovation in the
adaptation of the Chinese Thousand Character Classic to Korean
learners.
From the introduction to the AP and other bibliographic sources,
it appears that JSY was the principal author of the 1908 version
of the AP. There is scant information in the literature regarding
JSY, but it is generally known that he was a medical doctor who
introduced vaccines to Korea from Japan and that he founded the
first medical school in Korea. His study of vaccines most probably
convinced him of the importance of Western medicine and
prompted his interest in Western scholarship and English language
education as a tool to access knowledge of medical advances
outside of Korea.
JSY was a member of the progressive and Western-leaning
Independence Association and was involved in a number of
activities concerning the Korean language. He was familiar with
King Sejong’s work on the Hunmin Jeongeum, the seminal
document introducing the Korean Hangul writing system, and
 John Stonham & Hyehyun Lee 119

argued that many other scholars were not familiar enough with the
system of the Hangul, even though it offered an excellent means
to representing new sounds to facilitate learning. He argued that
Hangul should be reformed to facilitate its learning by the people
and developed improved methods of using Hangul to represent
Chinese characters and sounds, as demonstrated in the AP. The
following quote from Lee & Ramsey (2011: 289) demonstrates the
importance of JSY’s contributions to Korean language
modernization.

In 1905, the activist Chi Sŏgyŏng [= JSY] put forward a

public appeal for the development of “new standards” of
spelling and usage (新訂國文). This document quickly
attracted enough public attention to affect government
policy, the first to do so, and in 1907 the newly
established Institute for the Study of Korean Writing
(Kungmun Yŏn’guso) took up Chi’s proposal and began
serious work on the project.

JSY’s contributions to English education are generally less well

known, but the AP attests to his interest in language education
issues and in the teaching of English language.
In the introduction to the AP Jeon Yong-gyu is mentioned as a
contributor to the work, due to his knowledge of both English and
Japanese. He was a co-worker of JSY at the Severance hospital,
the oldest western-style hospital in Korea. We assume that Jeon
Yong-gyu was an important source of data on the pronunciation
of both English and Japanese, as noted in the preface to the AP.
An additional issue concerning the AP is the actual date of
publication, since there appear to be two radically different
versions of the text with the same title published several years
apart. One version contains Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and
English pronunciations, whereas the other has neither English nor
Mandarin Chinese. The former version is dated on the cover of the
120 An Early 20th Century Korean Phonetic Alphabet

book as “Yunghi 1st Year, 9th month,” i.e., March 1908, while the
other is dated “Yunghi 4th Year, 5th month,” December 1910. If
these dates are correct, then the later version appeared several
months after the signing of the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty
(signed August 22, 1910) and removed both Modern Chinese and
English words and pronunciations from the entries.
We should note here that the versions of the texts employed for
this study come from two main sources: i) a Japanese volume,
Jigakuhen. Nichigo Ruikai. Kango Shoho (1970) containing several
works published in the same era (AP 1908); and ii) the Korean
National Library digital database (AP 1910).
There is reason to believe that JSY may have only been directly
involved with the earlier, 1908 version and the actual author of the
later, 1910 version is unclear. One clue to this issue of authorship
has to do with the use of a more conservative version of the
Hangul writing system in the later work. Since JSY was known
to be progressive in his attitude to the Korean writing system, as
attested in the above quote from Lee & Ramsey (2011) and
supported by his own modifications to the pronunciations in the
1908 version, it is unlikely that he would have reverted to an older
style in the representation of Korean pronunciation for a later
edition of the AP. Examples of this type of discrepancy include
the use of arae a to render [æ], and of ᄒᆡ /hɑi/1 to render 해
/hæ/, the latter exemplified by the differences shown in figures 1
and 2 below. In addition to this consistent difference in the
representation of vowels, only the 1908 version indicates the
presence of vowel length (by a raised quote / ' /), which is still
an important phonological feature of Korean at the time. Since it
would seem unlikely that JSY would revert to an older form of
the vowel representation and at the same time remove important

1 In this paper, square brackets, [ ], are employed to indicate phonetic transcription

and slashes, / /, are used to transliterate the Hangul symbols for readers unfamiliar
with the Hangul writing system.
 John Stonham & Hyehyun Lee 121

information regarding vowel length that was found in the 1908

version, it seems more probable that the 1910 version of the AP
was authored by another person who was not fully familiar with
JSY’s system.
We will focus here on the earlier, 1908 version, which contains
the English entries with their phonetic transcriptions (Figure 1), in
addition to other details. Figure 2 provides a sample entry from
the later 1910 edition for comparison.

Figure 1. 1908 Ahak Pyeon Figure 2. 1910 Ahak Pyeon

3. Format of the Ahak Pyeon

The AP is basically a quadrilingual glossary of Chinese

characters for the use of students. The version we examine here
reflects the Korean orthographic conventions and pronunciations of
that time. Entries, which henceforth will be referred to by page
number and side within brackets, e.g., [1a] to indicate the recto of
the first page, consist of a number of different types of
information, organized in the fashion presented in Figure 3:
The explanation of the various parts of each entry is as follows.
122 An Early 20th Century Korean Phonetic Alphabet

Figure 3. Entry from AP 1908 [1a]

① is the main entry, a Chinese character with the meaning

‘minister of state,’ the sixth entry in the AP and in JYY’s
textbook. ② provides the Korean definition of this character;
usually this will be the native Korean gloss of the word, e.g., 天
is defined as 하날 /hanal/, the version employed at this time.
Where there is no appropriate native Korean word for the Chinese
character, the usual Sino-Korean form of the word is used, shinha
in the case of Figure 3. ③ is the Sino-Korean pronunciation of the
Chinese character. ④ gives the Standard Mandarin Chinese
pronunciation of the character, employing Hangul to approximate
the phonetic transcription of the Mandarin [tʃən]. ⑤ provides the
relevant Mandarin Chinese tone of the character, in Figure 3, the
second or rising tone. ⑥ gives earlier/archaic forms of the
character and ⑦ provides a rhyming character, in this case 唇
[dʒin], based on Sino-Korean pronunciation, not Mandarin, which
would be [dʒən]. ⑧ provides the native Japanese (Kun-yomi)
reading of the Chinese character in katakana and ⑨ gives the
 John Stonham & Hyehyun Lee 123

Sino-Japanese version (On-yomi), also in katakana. ⑩ and ⑪

provide the phonetic transcription of these two Japanese forms,
respectively, using a modified Hangul system to closely render the
Japanese pronunciations. ⑫ provides the English orthographic
form of the meaning of the Chinese character, glossed in a simple
one- or two-word phrase. ⑬, which will be our main point of
focus in this paper, provides a phonetic transcription of this
English word/phrase, employing the same modified Hangul system
as used for the Mandarin Chinese and the Japanese. We will
discuss the various modifications to the Hangul system as
employed for transcribing English words in section 5.
Clearly, the AP makes its own significant contribution to
education through the addition of both Japanese and English
orthographic representations of the Chinese characters, as well as
phonetic transcriptions in Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and
English. In addition to this, much of the Korean data was
modernized from the early 19th century pronunciations provided
by JYY.
We will, in the remainder of this paper, focus on the English
forms and the way they are represented in the AP. We will
examine the accuracy of the phonetic representations provided for
English words and the novel modifications to the Hangul writing
system that were employed in order to render the English
pronunciations. Following the examination of the system, we will
discuss the important contribution that JSY made to English
education in the AP.

4. On the “System” in JSY’s Transcriptions

Before continuing we should note that the system of

representation that we are discussing in this paper is not a
transliteration scheme, used for rendering foreign names in
124 An Early 20th Century Korean Phonetic Alphabet

standard written Korean, as may be found in newspapers or

magazines, but rather a phonetic transcription of the pronunciation
of a foreign word which is capable of accurately rendering a close
approximation of the original word. For example, compare the
typical rendering of the word Bavaria in current standard Korean,
바바리아 /paparia/, versus the phonetic rendering of the same place
name in Mackenzie (1895), 리아 /p'avaria/. As is readily
evident from the IPA rendering of the two forms, the former
employs only the standard Hangul symbols, which limits the
phonetic accuracy but economizes on the typesetting, whereas the
latter provides a far more accurate pronunciation at the expense of
orthographic complexity. It is the latter form of representation that
interests us here.
The former type of adaptation may be referred to as
hangulization, by analogy with the term romanization for the use
of the Roman script in representing foreign words in English, such
as kimchee, Seoul, Hyundai, etc. Such forms of representation are
attempts at providing a rough approximation of a foreign word in
a form that fits within the borrowing language’s own phonetic
system. The system employed in the AP is a true phonetic
transcription system intended to aid learners in developing an
accurate pronunciation of foreign words as pronounced in the
foreign language, not simply the adaptation of foreign words to
Korean pronunciation. This is an important distinction that is often
confused in the study of representations of foreign words.
JSY outlines his system for transcribing the Chinese, Japanese,
and English versions of the characters in the AP in the
introduction to the book. He provides charts and tables, in addition
to explanations, in order to make the transcription system as clear
as possible for the reader.
The Chinese transcription, as in ④/⑤ in Figure 3 above,
provides a current, Mandarin pronunciation of the Chinese
character, 臣 chén [ʧén], including an indication of the proper
tone, using the same transcription system as used for English and
 John Stonham & Hyehyun Lee 125

Japanese. Choi (2006) has discussed the nature of the Chinese

transcriptions in the AP in detail, so we will not pursue this other
than to provide a few examples of special usage in Table 1.

Table 1. Examples of Chinese Transcription

Native Sino- Ref.
Pron. Symbol Character Meaning Mandarin Korean Korean No.

1 ʐ ㅿ 日 sun, day  날 일 [6a]

/nal/ /il/

2 f ㅸ 父 father  아비 부 [1a]
/abi/ /pu/

3 diao sable 돈피 초
/cho/ [17a]
貂
/donpi/

The first row illustrates the use of the Middle Korean pansios,
ㅿ, to represent the voiced retroflex fricative, [ʐ], in modern
Mandarin, reflecting a similar use in Middle Korean (Stonham &
Kim 2010). The second row illustrates the similar use of Middle
Korean kapyeoun pieup, ㅸ[β], to represent [f] in Chinese. The
third example, /twja/, merits brief examination. In order to
pronounce this form correctly, one must violate the natural
expected reading order of the elements in the Korean syllable,
reading first ㄷ /t/ then ㅑ /ja/ and finally ㅗ [w], giving the
correct Mandarin pronunciation diao, rather than the expected
natural order of ㄷ /t/ then ㅗ /w/ and finally ㅑ /ja/, which would
render the very awkward pronunciation of /dwja/. This syllable is,
in fact, unpronounceable in Korean, but compare this with the
syllable 돠, for example, which is pronounced /twa/, i.e., ㄷ → ㅗ
→ ㅏ.2 This is a good example of the sophistication of JSY’s
system, which employs not only special symbols to represent

2 Found, for instance, in the Indian place name 크한돠 /kɨhandwa/, “Khandwa,
Madhya Pradesh” or the contracted form for 도와주세요: 돠주세요
/towadʒusejo : twadʒusejo/ “Please help.”
126 An Early 20th Century Korean Phonetic Alphabet

foreign sounds, but also its own conventions for interpreting the
transcriptions, including modifications to the reading order of
syllables.
Similarly, Japanese is transcribed using the same, Hangul-based
transcription system, as indicated in Figure 3, ⑩ for kun-yomi and
⑪ for on-yomi. Special features of the transcription system for
Japanese include the use of Korean saisios for indicating Japanese
consonant gemination (rendered in katakana by the sokuon) as in
닷도후 /tatt'ohu/ for <タットフ> ‘minister’ [3b], as well as the use
of Korean ㅅ + consonant to indicate the voicing of Japanese
consonants (discussed in the introduction but not used in the main
body of text), and the indication of the Japanese nasal /ɡ̃/ (found
in some pronunciations) by means of a preceding velar nasal (ㅇ)
followed by an onsetless syllable, as shown in 뎅아미 /teŋami/ <テ
ガミ> /teɡ̃ami/ ‘letter’ [24b].
Seong (2002) has examined the Japanese transcriptions and
noted errors, but these are typically, like many of the English
cases, errors of data familiarity, not of analysis. We refer the
reader to Seong (ibid.) for a discussion of the Japanese
representations in the AP.
As an example of the general, consistent application of this
Hangul-based transcription system, we will briefly examine the
marking of vowel length in the AP. Vowel length is indicated in
the Korean, Japanese, and English transcriptions by the use of a
raised accent mark / ' / to the right of the affected syllable. In
Korean, this indicates the traditional length distinction in forms
such as 장'수 /dʒaŋsuː/ ‘general’ and 장수 /dʒaŋsu/ ‘long life,’
where the initial syllable of the former word exhibits greater
weight than in the latter.3 In Japanese, length is a distinctive
characteristic of the vowel system and is indicated in transcriptions
such as 보' /poː/ for Japanese ボウ /bou/ (母 ‘mother’ [1a]; also

3 This is still true in some dialect pronunciations although Modern Standard Korean
no longer reflects this vowel length consistently.
 John Stonham & Hyehyun Lee 127

used to indicate the English word ‘bow,’ as in bow tie). For

English, the length mark is used to indicate (i) the absence of [r]
in non-rhotic pronunciation of forms such as ‘officer’ 오 써'
/ofɯis'ɔ/ [2b], (ii) tense vowels such as [i:] in 티'춰 /tʰiːʧʰwɔ/
‘teacher’ [2a], (iii) diphthong length in 으렐네'트 /ɨɾelneːtʰɨ/
‘relate’ [2a], and (iv) certain vowel modifications, such as 안'트 /aː
ntʰɨ/ ‘aunt’ [1b].
This consistent use of this diacritic, / ' /, across languages
demonstrates the general applicability and extensibility of the
system. It seems clear that JSY intended his system to be used as
a universal phonetic alphabet for the recording of pronunciation in
any language. We now move on to a more detailed examination
of the use of JSY’s system in the representation of English
pronunciations.

5. The Phonetic Rendering of English

Transcribing the words of one language in a way that makes

sense in another language involves many considerations. When the
two languages employ very different orthographic systems, the
problems are compounded. And when the sound inventories of the
two languages are very different, even greater challenges arise.
Note that this process is distinct from transliteration, which may
simply assign a one-to-one mapping of the symbols of the source
language to those of the target. These latter systems do not aim
at phonetic accuracy, but require an in-depth knowledge of the
sound systems of both languages as a starting point. A phonetic
transcription system, on the other hand, assumes no such prior
knowledge and aims to provide a means to acquire as accurate a
pronunciation as possible for those who are not yet familiar with
the target language.
As shown in Figure 3 above, the bottom of each entry in the
128 An Early 20th Century Korean Phonetic Alphabet

AP has two lines dedicated to English. The first of these is an

orthographic presentation of the English word or phrase considered
to be closest to the meaning of the Chinese character. Given that
there is often an uneven correspondence between the meanings of
words in the two languages, the choice of this word is often
infelicitous but may be said to give a rough approximation of
meaning. For example, the Chinese character, 尖, is glossed in
English as ‘acuminous,’ a rather uncommon word, when ‘keen,
sharp, acute’ might have been more appropriate and the character
鴷 is glossed as ‘pickingbird’ rather than the usual ‘woodpecker.’
The second English-related line in the representation is the most
germane to our study here. It provides a phonetic rendering of the
English word, employing the Hangul alphabet in the modified
form developed by JSY, in order to present a pronunciation that
is as accurate as possible.
In what follows, we will discuss how JSY modified the Hangul
alphabet in a variety of ways, sometimes adopting symbols from
earlier, Middle Korean usage and sometimes creating his own
versions of symbols, consistent with the Hangul system, in order
to create a Korean phonetic alphabet for the transcription of
foreign languages, including English.
We will proceed through the different phonetic categories of
sounds, examining each in turn to see how they are represented in
JSY’s system, beginning with the nasal consonants.

5.1. Nasal Consonants [m, n, ŋ]

Nasal consonants, [m, n, ŋ], are basically the same in English

and Korean. For this reason, the English nasal consonants can be
adequately rendered by the equivalent existing Hangul symbol in
a straightforward, one-to-one fashion, as shown in (1).
 John Stonham & Hyehyun Lee 129

(1) mind 마인드 /ma.intɨ/ [5a]

moon 문 /mun/ [6a]
spring 스푸링 /sɨpʰuɾiŋ/ [8a]
palm 팜' /pʰaːm/ [4b]
nose 노쓰 /nos'ɨ/ [3b]

English nasal sounds pose little difficulty with respect to

pronunciation. The only thing to note here is the case of English
<ŋ> which is sometimes accompanied by a following velar
segment 그, for instance. While the appearance of [ɡ] is also
known to occur in certain dialects of English, for instance, in
Liverpool dialect, it is considered non-standard. Note that, in
Standard English, there is a contrast word-internally between
forms such as finger [fɪŋgəɹ] versus singer [sɪŋəɹ], but this
contrast does not occur at the end of the word. Thus, we find
tongue rendered as 텅그 /tɔŋkɨ/ [4a] and wing as 윙그 /wiŋkɨ/
[20b] but spring is accurately represented without the following
그, as in spring 스푸링 /sɨpʰuɾiŋ/ [8a] and awning 아운잉 /a.uniŋ/
[23b]. The addition of 그 may be an analogical formation based
on English words such as bank 방크 /paŋkʰɨ/ [7a] or ink 잉크 /iŋkʰ
ɨ/ [24b], where a final voiceless velar segment does, in fact, follow
the <ng>. Note that the final consonant symbol in these latter
cases is the one employed to represent English <k>, whereas the
symbol used for tongue and other similar cases is used by JSY to
represent English <g>.
There is no systematic representation of syllabic nasals in JSY’s
system, many examples being rendered according to orthography,
e.g., cotton 코톤 /kʰotʰon/ [15a].

5.2. Voiceless Stops [p, t, k]

Initial voiceless stops, which appear in English words like

people, teacher, and concubine, are represented using the Hangul
symbols for Korean voiceless aspirated stops ㅍ, ㅌ, ㅋ, much as
130 An Early 20th Century Korean Phonetic Alphabet

they are in English loanwords today, e.g., party 파티 /pʰatʰi/, team

팀 /tʰim/, cocoa 코코아 /kʰokʰoa/. This reflects the fact that in
English such sounds are aspirated when they occur at the
beginning of the word. Examples of such cases from the AP
include those in (2).

(2) a. people 피오필 /pʰi.opʰil/ [2b]

top 톱푸 /tʰoppʰu/ [4a]
kite 카이트 /kʰa.itʰɨ/ [16b]

(2) b. spring 스푸링 /sɨpʰuɾiŋ/ [8a]

star 스타아' /sɨtʰa.a:/ [6a]
sky 스카이 /sɨ.kʰa.i/ [1a]

These symbols ensure that the English voiceless stops are

correctly pronounced in initial position, i.e., with aspiration.
However, it should be noted that the aspiration in English
voiceless stops is typically suppressed when following [s], as in
spot, stop, scot. This level of narrow phonetic distinction does not
appear to be indicated in the AP, as in (2b), or in subsequent
representations of English in Hangul up to the present. Word-final
voiceless stops are invariably represented by the Hangul aspirated
series, for example, stop 스톱푸 /sɨtʰoppʰu/ [55a], breast 레스트
/puɾesɨtʰɨ/ [4a], smoke 스목크 /sɨmokkʰɨ/ [11a]. One interesting
feature of this position is the occasional doubling of the final
consonant (one plain followed by one aspirate) in the labial and
velar series but not among the alveolars, which are never doubled
in this context.

5.3. Voiced Stops [b, d, g]

Voiced stops in English, as found in the initial position of words

such as book, doctor, guest or at the end of words like cab, bed,
 John Stonham & Hyehyun Lee 131

bag, are distinct from the voiceless stops and should therefore be
represented distinctly. JSY renders this difference by using the
Hangul sequence of ㅅ + consonant, which at that time was one
way to represent the tense consonants of Korean, i.e., ㅃ, ㄸ, ㄲ.
Phonetically, these consonants are unaspirated and pronounced
with a certain amount of tension in the vocal tract. Thus we find
Korean forms such as  /t'aŋ/, ‘earth’ [1a] now written 땅 /t'aŋ/
or  /p'jam/ ‘jaw’ [4a] now written 뺨 /p'jam/ (‘cheek’). The AP
provides examples such as (3).

(3) back 크 /pikʰɨ/ [4b]

dragon 띿건 /tɨɾakkɔn/ [18a]
garlic 릐크 /kalɾikʰɨ/ [13a]

The Korean tense consonants, ㅃ, ㄸ, ㄲ, and so on are never

used in the transcription of English final consonants.

5.4. Liquids [r, l]

JSY introduces a special convention with regard to his

representation of the difference between English [r] and [l]. Since
Korean has only a single liquid consonant phoneme with two
alternating phonetic realizations depending on position, only one
symbol, ㄹ, is necessary for Korean words. However, English
makes a clear distinction between the two liquids, e.g., royal
versus lawyer. Word-medially, it is possible to achieve this
distinction by the use of two occurrences of Hangul ㄹㄹ in
adjacent syllables to replicate the distinction in Korean, thus, solo
versus sorrow may be represented as 솔로 /solɾo/ versus 소로
/soɾo/. This solution is often employed in present-day renderings
of English loanwords, but there is a problem in one particular
domain: the beginning of the word. Since ㄹ cannot be doubled
initially, how does one distinguish between rock and lock?
132 An Early 20th Century Korean Phonetic Alphabet

JSY’s solution to this problem is to introduce a default vowel

symbol, the Korean vowel ㅡ, into an initial syllable in
combination with either a single or double occurrence of ㄹ in the
subsequent string of symbols. If it were a singleton, then the
pronunciation would be English [ɹ], as in rock 으록크 /ɨɾokkʰɨ/
[7b], whereas if it were doubled, ㄹㄹ, an English [l] would be the
result, as in lock, rendered as lock 을록크 /ɨlɾokkʰɨ/ [22b].
This represents a truly ingenious solution to the use of a single
symbol to make two different distinctions. It shows a sophisticated
understanding of phonetic/phonemic representation at roughly the
same time that the International Phonetic Association was
developing their phonetic alphabet. Note that the use of ㅡ as an
epenthetic vowel is already well established by its use to break up
syllable-initial clusters, as in scale 스케일 /sɨkʰe.il/ [20b] and skin
스킨 /sɨkʰin/ [5b].
It is worth remarking that English final r-sounds are not
indicated in the transcription, but may be noted by the lengthening
of the preceding vowel in JSY’s system, e.g., star 스타아' /sɨtʰa.a:/
[6a], deer '아 /ti.a/ [17a], etc. English final [l] appears as a
single ㄹ, e.g., ball  /pol/ [25a], call 콜' /kʰol:/ [44b], etc. (more
on length marking in section 5.8). No distinction is made between
English clear and dark /l/ in the coda, both being rendered with
the Hangul ㄹ.

5.5. Fricatives

Some of the most interesting modifications to the system appear

in the representation of English fricatives. English possesses a
much more complex system of fricative sounds than Korean,
including labiodental /f, v/, interdental /θ, ð/, alveolar /s, z/,
alveopalatal /ʃ, ʒ/ and glottal /h/. The Modern Korean
phonological system has only three fricatives, ㅅ, ㅆ, ㅎ, which is
insufficient to represent all the various places of articulation
occurring in English fricatives. For this reason, it was necessary
 John Stonham & Hyehyun Lee 133

for JSY to introduce a number of modifications to his system of

phonetic representation of English in order to accommodate the
large range of fricative sounds. The common English word, father,
illustrates this aptly, as shown in (4).

(4) father 아 /fɨ.aðɔ/ [1a]

Notice that this word possesses two fricatives, [f] and [ð], not
found in Korean. Word-initially, it has [f], a voiceless labiodental
fricative also found as the first sound in fox and funny and as the
last sound in half and cough. In order to approximate this sound
using the Hangul writing system, JSY co-opts an original Middle
Korean symbol, ㆄ, used at that time to represent a voiceless
bilabial fricative, [ɸ], found in the Mandarin Chinese of the time.
However, JSY restructures the symbol, placing the circle on the
side rather than underneath, thus ᅋ. This modification may have
been for typographic convenience, since the Middle Korean
symbol was no longer employed, but both ㅇ and ㅍ were readily
available as independent symbols. Parallel to this modification of
ㆄ, we find a similar modification of ㅸ in the form ᅄ, which is
employed to represent English [v], as in vein, vat, etc. Examples
of the latter in the AP include English river, represented as 으리
/ɨɾivɔ/ [8a] and vessel 샐 /vesæl/ [25a].
For the voiced interdental fricative, [ð], a sound occurring
word-medially in cases such as father and mother, JSY employs
a novel collocation, ᅈ, thereby extending the Middle Korean
convention for using ㅇ under consonant symbols to make ‘light’
(fricative) versions of those sounds. This principle was introduced
in the Hunmin Jeong-eum in order to represent fricatives found in
foreign languages like Chinese /f/, but was never used with ㅈ,
since there was no need for it at that time. JSY applies the
principle to create a symbol for English /ð/, recognizing both its
fricative and voiced qualities and assigning it to an interdental
134 An Early 20th Century Korean Phonetic Alphabet

place of articulation.
In like fashion, JSY creates ᅂ to represent English /θ/,
represented in the English orthography as <th>, occurs in many
words in word-intital, word-medial, and word-final positions as
exemplified by thin, catheter, beneath, respectively. To the best of
our knowledge, these symbols are entirely novel innovations of
JSY, but they clearly demonstrate the genius of the originators of
the Hangul system, who anticipated future needs and created a
writing system which was open-ended enough to allow for such
extensions in a simple and straightforward fashion.
With respect to the English alveolar fricatives, /s/ and /z/,
word-initial [s] is usually represented by Hangul ㅆ, e.g., 씨 /s'i/
‘sea,’ but by ㅅ when followed by a consonant, e.g., 스킬 /sɨkʰil/
‘skill [39a].’ It is more inconsistently represented by either Hangul
ㅅ or ㅆ in some cases, such as sit 시트 /sitʰ ɨ/ [43b] but six 씩스
/s'iksɨ/ [61b]. [z] does not appear with any indication of voicing,
thus ease or fuse are represented as 이'스 /e:sɨ/ [53b] and 유쓰
/fɯijus'ɨ/ [46a], respectively. Most instances of [z] employ ㅆ.
Orthographic <z> is treated in like fashion, for example ‘gauze’ 
우쓰 /ka.us'ɨ/ [28b], ‘lazy’ 을 네이씨 /ɨlnes'ɨ/ [60b], ‘sneeze’ 스네'
쓰 /sɨnes'ɨ/ [38a], etc.
The alveopalatal fricative [ʃ] is most commonly represented with
labialization, as in (5a). This reflects the typical lip-rounding
inherent in the English sound (Proctor, Shadle & Iskarous 2006).
English [ʒ] is not marked for voicing and is thus not distinguished
from [ʃ], as illustrated in (5b).

(5) a. fish 쉬 /fiʃi/ [20a]

sheep 쉬이 /ʃi.ippʰu/ [17b]
shrimp 쉴림푸 /ʃwiɾippʰu/ [18b]

(5) b. liesure 을 네쒀 /ɨlnes'wɔ/ [53b]

[sic = ‘leisure’]
 John Stonham & Hyehyun Lee 135

Finally, English /h/ is represented uncontroversially by Hangul

ㅎ, as in ‘hat’ 하트 /hatʰɨ/ [29b] or ‘hill’ 힐 /hil/ [7b].
In summary, English fricatives are generally distinguished in
JSY’s system, with the exception of voiced alveolar and
alveopalatal fricatives [z] and [ʒ], which are merged with their
voiceless counterparts. Curiously, both labiodental and interdental
fricatives are distinguished for voicing.

5.6. Affricates

English affricates are represented in Hangul by their counterparts

in Korean: /tʃ/ by ᄎ, and /dʒ/ by ㅾ. Like the alveopalatal
fricatives, the alveopalatal affricates are usually accompanied by
an indication of lip-rounding which is inherent in the English
sound (Proctor, Shadle & Iskarous 2006). This is illustrated in the
following examples.

(5) a. teacher 티'춰 /tʰi:tʃʰwɔ/ [2a]

chair 췌아 /tʃʰe./ [24a]
child 촤일드 /tʃʰwa.iltɨ/ [1a]

(5) b. cabbage 캅에쥐 /kʰapp'e.edʒwi/ [12b]

junk 크 /dʒɔŋkʰɨ/ [23b]

Interestingly, the voiced and voiceless alveopalatal affricates are

differentiated by the use of ㅊ [tʃ] and ㅈ [dʒ], unlike their
fricative counterparts discussed above.

5.7. Vowels and Diphthongs

Vowels are often more difficult to characterize accurately, and the

English tendency to reduce vowels in unstressed syllables further
complicates attempts to provide a consistent rendering of similar
136 An Early 20th Century Korean Phonetic Alphabet

words. For instance, batten versus baton, relay versus rely, etc.
In JSY’s system, most English vowels use the nearest equivalent
Hangul symbol. Distinctions between [i] and [I] or [u] and [ʊ] are
not made by different vowel symbols, since this distinction is not
contrastive in Korean. Occasionally, this tense/lax contrast is
indicated by means of the Hangul length mark to be discussed
below. The examples in (7) demonstrate the absence of the
distinction.

(7) beak 비크 /pikʰɨ/ [20b]

pit 피트 /pʰitʰɨ/ [7b]
root 으루트 /ɨɾutʰɨ/ [14b]
book 크 /p'ukʰɨ/ [24b]

English diphthongs are represented, for the most part, as they

are in current Korean transliteration, as a sequence of two
heterosyllabic vowels as exemplified by (8).

(8) sky 스카이 /sɨkʰa.i/ [1a]

male 메일 /me.il/ [1a]
boy 이 /p'o.i/ [2b]
bound 운드 /p'a.untɨ/ [53b]
bow 우 /p'o.u/ [28a]

This results in an additional syllable in the representation, but

there are exceptions to this generalization. In the case of the
English diphthong [ei], it is often, though not always, replaced by
the simple Hangul vowel <ㅔ> as shown in (9a) below. Other
cases follow the more typical diphthongal representation, < ㅔ이>,
ㅡ
as in (9b).
 John Stonham & Hyehyun Lee 137

(9) a. able 에블 /epɨl/ [63a]

afraid 아레드 /afɨɾetɨ/ [59b]
bathe ' /p'e:ðɨ/ [45a]
brain 렌 /p'uɾen/ [3b]

(9) b. case 케이쓰 /kʰe.is'ɨ/ [26a]

cave 케이 /kʰe.ivu/ [7b]
fade 이드 /fe.itɨ/ [49a]
scale 스케일 /sɨkʰe.il/ [20b]

The difference between English [æ] and [ɛ], which does not
exist in present-day Korean, or is at least rare, is indicated by JSY
using the Hangul symbols ㅐ and ㅔ, reflecting the earlier values
of these symbols.

(10) bad 드 /p'ætɨ/ [32b]

sad 쌔드 /s'ætɨ/ [58b]
shallow 쇌노우 /swelno.u/ [51b]
bell  /p'el/ [22b]
leg 을레그 /ɨlɾekɨ/ [3b]
sell 쎄르 /s'el/ [45b]

Other English vowels are represented by additional symbols. For

instance, the vowel found in words like bird, fur, etc., is
represented as in (11) below:

(11) bird 드 /p'ɔtɨ/ [20a]

fur garment ''맨트' /fɔ:ka':mæntʰɨ/ [29a]
word 우워드 /u.ɔtɨ/ [44a]
138 An Early 20th Century Korean Phonetic Alphabet

5.8. Additional Phonetic Symbols

JSY employs additional diacritics in order to represent some of

the phonetic modifications found in spoken English, including
labialization, palatalization, and vowel length.
Labialization, found in a number of contexts in English, is
indicated in JSY’s system by the use of the vowel symbol ㅜ /u/
added to a syllable, as in tree 투리 /tʰuɾi/ [11a], pretty 푸리티 /pʰ
uɾitʰi/ [50a], brook 룩크 /p'uɾukkʰɨ/ [8a], child 촤일드 /tʃʰwa.iltɨ/
[1a], plum 풀럼 /pʰulɾɔm/ [13b]. This records a subtle distinction
not usually noted by English native speakers.
The labiovelar approximant [w] is indicated by the same
symbol, even in contexts where Korean would disallow the
sequence, e.g., 우어크만 /u.ɔkʰɨman/ workman [45a], 우울
/u.ul.fɨ/ wolf [17b], 우옴 /u.om/ worm [20a]. This is particularly
interesting because such sequences are not found in Korean, but
JSY recognizes their importance in English and encodes them as
sequences in his transcription system.
Similarly, the Korean symbol for [i], ㅣ, is used to mark
palatalization of sounds, as in (12a), and the related ㅠ /ju/ in
(12b). Combined with labialization we encounter cases such as
(12c).

(12) a. beauty 유티 /p'ijutʰi/ [55b]

flute 뉴트 /fɨlnjutʰɨ/ [32a]
bridge 릿즤 /p'uɾitdʒi/ [9b]

(12) b. fuel 율/유엘 /fɨ.jul//fɨ.juel/ [10b]/[45b]

influence 인뉴엔쓰 /infɨlnjuens'ɨ/ [47b]
luxuriance 을넉슈렌쓰 /ɨlnɔkʃjuɾens'ɨ/ [54b]
 John Stonham & Hyehyun Lee 139

(12) c. fish 쉬 /fɯiʃwi/ [20a]

ship 쉽 /ʃwip/ [23b]
chin 췬 /tʃwin/ [3b]

A final area of modification in the English transcriptions

involves the use of the single quotation mark, / ' /, to indicate
vowel length. This is used, as mentioned above, to distinguish
tense from lax vowels, as well as for indicating the extra length
of diphthongs and the absence of final /r/.
Examples of long vowels indicated in the AP include the cases
in (13a), while cases of diphthongs with a length mark include
those in (13b). Cases of final /r/ marking are provided in (13c).

(13) a. beetle '틀 /p'itʰɨl/ [27a]

evil 이' /ivɨl/ [49a]
food '드 /futɨ/ [31a]
goose '쓰 /k'u:s'ɨ/ [16a]
aunt 안'트 /a:ntʰɨ/ [1b]

(13) b. blade '네드 /p'ulnetɨ/ [40b]

date '트 /t'etʰɨ/ [13b]

(13) c. arm 암' /a:m/ [40b]

gourd '드 /k'ɔtɨ/ [12b]
hard 하'드 /h:atɨ/ [51a]

This concludes the examination of the various conventions

introduced by JSY for representing English pronunciation. We
now take a brief look at the possible sources of English
pronunciation data in the AP.
140 An Early 20th Century Korean Phonetic Alphabet

6. Source of English Pronunciation

The English pronunciation of the words in the AP suggests a

British origin, although there is little lexical evidence for this. The
strongest indicator of a British source is the non-rhotic nature of
the pronunciation. It should be noted, however, that certain
American varieties, especially in the late 19th / early 20th century
were also non-rhotic and some continue to be.
The spelling of words such as neighbour, arbour, and saltpetre
also suggests a British source, since these follow British spelling
conventions rather than the American ones. Nevertheless, there are
pairs of forms with alternate spellings, such as favor [58a] and
favour [48a] or honor [32b] and honour [49a], which muddy the
waters.
The transcription of words such as harem also provides evidence
of a British pronunciation, specifically the quality of the first
vowel, transcribed as 헤아렘 /he.aɾem/. For instance, Michaelis &
Jones (1913: 184), in their English Dictionary, transcribes harem
as [`hɛərem] with a diphthong in the first syllable, suggesting that
this is the usual British pronunciation of the word at the time.
Kenyon & Knott’s (1953) Pronouncing Dictionary of American
English of the early 20th century (“cultivated colloquial English of
the United States”) suggests a rather different pronunciation for the
American form of the word, [`hɛrəm].
One possible explanation for the variation in spelling and
pronunciation may be that there was more than one scholar
working on different sections of the AP, resulting in some
inconsistency in the final product. This possibility will be
discussed further in the following section.
 John Stonham & Hyehyun Lee 141

7. Irregularities in the Ahak Pyeon

Irregularities in the English entries of the AP stem from several

sources. First of all, there are typographic errors presumably
introduced by the printer, who was most likely not familiar with
English orthography, perhaps not with English at all. This should
not be surprising at a time when very little English was being used
in Korea and none in traditional-style books of the sort of the AP.
Examples of typographic errors of this sort include <Dhid> for
child, <birb> for bird, <drizzy> for drizzly, etc. It is JSY’s
transcriptions that point to the error being committed by the
printer in such cases, since the Hangul transcriptions of these
words are accurate representations of the English words, i.e., 촤일
드 /ʧʰwa.iltɨ/, 드 /p'ɔtɨ/, 리 쓸니 /t'ɨɾis'ɨlni/, respectively, in
spite of the errors in English orthography.
The second type of error has more to do with JSY’s (or perhaps
Jeon Yong-gyu’s) knowledge of English. Little is known about the
source of their understanding of English pronunciation, but there
are clear gaps, as well as clear insights in his transcriptions of
English words. For instance, the English word doctor is
transcribed as 토 /t'oktʰo/ and scholar as 스콜라 /sɨkʰolɾa/ but, in
fact, both words end in the same rhyme, typically represented as
ㅓ. Another example is anus, a medical term that JSY, as a
physician, would have been familiar with, which is rendered as 아
뉴쓰 /anjus'ɨ/, instead of the usual English pronunciation ['eɪnəs].
The transcription of this form is reminiscent of the French
pronunciation of the word. It is possible that it is due to the
pronunciation of other similar words such as annular ['aɲələr],
which does contain a palatalized [n]. Another curious example
is that for intestines, which is transcribed as 인테쓰티네쓰
/intʰes'ɨtʰines'ɨ/. The pronunciation of the final syllable is distinctly
odd, as if it is over-pronounced.
One clear indication that JSY made use of information from
142 An Early 20th Century Korean Phonetic Alphabet

dictionaries for at least some of the English data comes from the
curious gloss found for the Chinese character 纛 [28a]. The
English gloss for this is given as “Militar-banne-ry” for the
presumably correct “Military banner.” This was clearly not elicited
from a native speaker nor would it be recalled from memory in
this form. The only way that this could have arisen is from a
written source where both words were hyphenated, perhaps to suit
the narrow columns of a dictionary. Furthermore, this cannot be
attributed to a typographic error from the printer, given the
phonetic rendering of 밀니타 /milnitʰa/, 너리 /p'annɔɾi/, which
replicates the misrepresentation and even the word break, marked
with a comma. This case demonstrates that dictionaries must have
been used for at least some of the data included in the AP.
Over-reliance on English orthography is responsible for some
of the errors in pronunciation, e.g., cupboard is transcribed as
컵푸아드, /kʰɔppʰup'o.a.tɨ/ indicating pronunciation of both [p]
and [b] when this did not occur in English at this time. Obviously,
this is the result of a spelling pronunciation. A number of words,
including beard, friend, learn, are also transcribed based on their
spelling. These errors suggest that JSY may not have been very
familiar with the English language even though his transcription
system shows a great deal of sophistication.
A final source of error in the AP arises from inconsistency in
transcription. As noted above, this may be due to the involvement
of different individuals in the compilation of different sections of
the AP. For instance, there are American/British spelling doublets
such as favor [58a] / favour [48a] and honor [32b] / honour [49a]
found in different places in the book. Furthermore, there are
fluctuations in the systematic use of certain features such as the
distinction between English /θ/ and /ð/, which is maintained in the
initial part of the AP as ᅂ versus ᅈ, but is lost in the latter part
of the book, all forms being represented only by ᅈ. Additionally,
there is some inconsistency in the choice of vowel in certain
words, such as book 크 /p'ɨkʰɨ/ [1a] and 크 /p'ukʰɨ/ [24b],
 John Stonham & Hyehyun Lee 143

swallow 스왈로우 /sɨwalɾo.u/ [17a] and 수월노우 /suwɔlno.u/

[37a], etc. All of these factors suggest the involvement of more
than one individual in the creation of the AP.
It should be noted that these errors, while obviously affecting
the usability of the text, do not detract from the value of the
system itself. Such errors could have been easily addressed in a
revised version with input on pronunciation from native speakers,
but circumstances prevented such corrections from rectifying these
problems.

8. Summary and Conclusions

In this paper, we have established that JSY made several

significant contributions to English education in Korea in the 1908
version of the AP. First of all, he included English words in the
entries in the AP, allowing learners access to a previously
inaccessible but increasingly important international language. This
indicates his foresight and openness to progressive ideas in the
field of education.
Secondly, he included substantial phonetic information on the
pronunciation of each English word in the entries as discussed
above. This required him to gain a thorough understanding, not
only of English phonetics, but also of English pronunciation in
order to make the best possible representations of each word. In
order to accomplish this he must have conducted extensive
research to collect the English data from native speakers,
dictionaries, and whatever other sources were at his disposal.
We have also pointed out that JSY developed a system of
transcription that allowed learners already familiar with the Hangul
writing system to approximate a pronunciation of English. This
system facilitated access to English, as well as Mandarin Chinese
and Japanese, pronunciation for Korean learners by employing a
144 An Early 20th Century Korean Phonetic Alphabet

familiar system, Hangul, with modifications to extend its use to

English. This amply demonstrates JSY’s deep understanding of the
principles of the Hangul writing system as set out in the Hunmin
Jeong-eum and related works. Not only did JSY’s system make
use of the existing Hangul symbols, both current and archaic, but
he also made modifications consistent with the original system in
order to represent sounds that had not been anticipated by the
original developers of the Hunmin Jeong-eum.
This paper has discussed three important issues related to the
early work of JSY: i) the adaptation of the Hangul alphabet as a
phonetic system; ii) the potential of this system for the teaching
of English, especially for the early development of phonemic
awareness in the learner; and iii) insights into the early contact
period awareness and pronunciation of English.
Certain questions remain to be answered, including where JSY
got his English data and how he acquired his knowledge of
phonetics. One may speculate on the possible sources of data, for
instance Western colleagues at the Medical school or
acquaintances from church, or an English phonetic dictionary, but
the question remains open.

References

Choi, Y. 2006. <Ahakpyeon>, Junggugeo eumunchekgye yeongu

[Studies of Chinese phonology system]. MA Thesis. Hankuk
University of Foreign Studies.
Han, S-U. 2007. Gaehwagi sinmunui waelae-eo pyogie daehan
eumunlonjeok yeongu [A phonological study on loanwords in
newspapers in the enlightenment periods (1896-1910)].
Eomunhak [Language and Literature] 95, 281-309.
____. 2009. Ahakpyeoneul tonghae bon geundae dongasia
eoneogyolyu [The state of language interchange in Modern
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East Asia through Ahakpyeon]. Hankukhak Bunseok [Korean

studies analysis] 21, 267-301.
____. 2010. Gaehwagi walae-eo pyogi eumunlon [A phonological
study on loanwords in enlightenment periods (1896-1910)].
Urimalgeul: The Korean Language and Literature 49, 63-86.
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<http://www.hangeulmuseum.org/sub/information/bookData/tot
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