Tuttle Dictionary Martial Arts Korea, China & Japan. Daniel Kogan
as in the "chee" in cheek
cho as in choke
chu as in choose
da as in dock
de like desk
do as in dough
fu as in food
ga as in gasoline
ge like gay
gi as in geek
go as in going
gu like goo
gya is a sound between gi and a
gyo is a sound between gi and o
gyu as in the "gu" in argument
ha like haw
he like hay
hi like he
ho like hoe
hya is a sound between hi and a
hyo is a sound between hi and o
hyu is a sound between hi and u
ja as in Japan
je as in the "ge" in gentlemen
ji as in the "gy" gymnasium
jo like Joe
ju as in June
ka like caw
ke like Kay
ki like key
ko as in the "co" in loco
ku like coo
kya is a sound between ki and a
kyo is a sound between ki and o
kyu like cue
m as in mother
ma as in mama
me like May
mi as in the "mea" in meat
mo like Moe
mu like moo
mya is a sound between mi and a
myo is a sound between mi and o
myu as in the "mu" in music
n as in never
na as in natural
ne like nay
ni like knee
no as in nose
nu as in noon
nya as in "nia" in ammonia
nyo is a sound between ni and o
nyu as in news
pa as in Papa
pe like pay
pi as in pee-wee
po like Poe
pu like Pooh
pya is a sound between pi and a
pyo is a sound between pi and o
pyu as in pew
ra as in rattle
re as in ray
ri as in read
ro as in row
ru as in root
rya is a sound between ri and a
ryo is a sound between ri and o
ryu is a sound between ri and u
sa as in sock
se like say
so as in soak JM as in soon
shi as in sheep
sho as in show
shu as in shoot
ta as in the "to" in toffee
te as in take
to like toe
tsu is the "ts" sound in pants combined with a "u"
wa as in war
wu like woo
ya as in Yankee
yo as in yolk
yu like you
za as in zap
ze as in zany
zo as in zone
zu like zoo
Pronunciation Guide to Korean
Two major transliteration systems are used in Korea: the Ministry of Education system and the McCune-Reischauer system. Because of its frequent use of apostrophes to indicate aspirated consonants and accent marks to change vowel sounds, the Mc-Cune-Reischauer system has been avoided here. Instead, we have used the Ministry of Education system, which represents the various sounds of the Korean language as follows:
a as in the "a" in father
ae as in the "a" in fat
b as in boy
ch as in child
d as in door
e as in the "e" in pet
eo as in the "u" in but
eu as in the "oo" in foot
g as in golf
h as in hello
i as in the "ee" in feet
j as in jar
k as in key
l as in light
m as in moon
n as in not
o as in the "o" in go
oi as in the "way" in way
p as in pen
r as in the "r" in red when used to start a word, but rolled as a Spanish "r" when preceded by a vowel within a word
s as in say
t as in toy
u as in the "oo" in soon
w as in was
y as in yellow
You will no doubt notice double consonants such as "bb" in some Korean words. Such pairs receive more aspiration than the corresponding single consonants. For example, b sounds like the ordinary "b" in boy, and p sounds like the "p" in pen, but "bb" falls in between—much like the p in the normal pronunciation of the word "open." Even if you have trouble differentiating single and double consonants, keep in mind that most Koreans will be able to understand you no matter how imprecisely you enunciate. The language's absence of tones—such as those in Chinese—further facilitates pronunciation and understanding.
Please note that the "si" combination is usually pronounced as "she"; therefore, "sip" (the number 10) sounds like "sheep" and not "sip" or "ship." When the letters "ssi" are used together, however, they are pronounced "see" with emphasis on the "s" sound. Thus, Ssi Rum is pronounced "see reum" and not "shee reum."
You will also notice that several letters and sounds—f, v, th, z, etc.—are conspicuously absent. This is because they do not exist in Korean.
Note on the labels used within each entry:
The first label indicates which language the term is from. Therefore all terms marked (C) are from Cantonese, (J) are Japanese, (K) are Korean, (M) are Mandarin, and (O) are from the Okinawan dialect. The second label is the category of the word. It indicates what general subject the word concerns, be it a specific style, a religion, a type or part of a weapon, etc. The "common usage" category is for words that are used in a wide variety of categories or are not specific to the martial arts.
Although most non-English terms have