Korean Romanization and Notes on Ancient Names

Romanization and Pronunciation Key

When presenting Korean words on this journal I follow the Revised Romanization of Korean Names for the most part. I also give other spellings if those are customary, however.

Here is a quick-and-dirty pronunciation guide which makes absolutely no pretense to strict phonetic accuracy:

a: a as in car
ae: First part of a in at. Akin to the German ä
e: e in pet
eo: u as in gut
eu: e as in French de
i: i as in sit
o: o as in gold. Closer to the French o, as in oh là-là!
u: u as in put

g is always hard.

I occasionally add a silent h at the end of a word (e.g. "Yeh" to remind readers it's not pronounced "yee"). H is never silent unless it shows up at the end of a word.

Notes on Ancient Names

I give alternate pronunciations for a number of ancient Korean names (e.g. "Jumong" and "Chumo"). This happens because Korean had no written language until the year 1443 A.D. when Hangeul (or Hangul) was promulgated. Up to that point, and even long after, Koreans borrow Chinese characters which were often used inconsistently in transcribing Korean names. Sometimes Chinese characters were used for their meaning and sometimes for their sounds; even when they were used for the way they sounded, transcription was frequently inconsistent. For these and other reasons the way we pronounce these names today is unlikely to be the way the ancients pronounced them.

The Soseono Masterpost

"Sole reining queen and foundress in Korean history, she it was who built the two ancient kingdoms of Goguryeo and Baekje."
- Shin Chaeho, Ancient Korean History

Soseono (pronounced so-suh-no. 소서노 [召西奴]; 66 B.C.- 6 B.C.) was a part of the founding of two kingdoms in ancient Korea, Goguryeo and Baekje. She was the queen of the first king of Goguryeo and the mother of the first king of Baekje, but according to some she was far more than a wife and mother of founders but a founder and even ruling queen in her own right. The purpose of this post is to reconstruct the life of this remarkable woman based on reliable historical information.

* For a pronunciation guide and a note on the names see Korean Romanization and Notes on Ancient Names.

( Reliable being a relative term here... )

I broke the Soseono code!

As noted at the end of the notes on ancient names post, our modern pronunciation of ancient names probably doesn't match the way the ancient Koreans themselves pronounced these names. Either Chinese characters were used for their meaning instead of their sound, or the letters fulfilled phonetic functions that didn't involve sounding out the full letter.

For this reason the name of my heroine was a mystery for the longest time, and not just to me. Literally, in Chinese, it means call-west-slave (召西奴), but it's pretty obvious the letters were used to transcribe the sound of a Korean name and weren't used for their meaning.

( Theorizing, googling, then inspiration! )