PARADIGM SHIFT

[kerpingtack]

My sister just pointed out that maybe Jonghyun should be romanized as Jonghyeon, just like in those old posts from when SHINee first debuted and no one knew the official English spelling!! noooooooooooooo!!! It's because his name has ㅕ in it (종현), like Taeyeon (태연) and Hyoyeon (효연). If it were Jonghyun with the "u", it would be ㅜ/ㅠ ("oo") like in Yunho (윤호)?? So, like... Jonghyoon (종휸)? LOL ;~; Maybe the rule is different when there's a consonant (ㅇ doesn't really count; it's like an empty placeholder sound), because Seohyun (서현) and like, ramyun (라면) are also spelled with "u" ("hyun"/"myun"). Plus sometimes ㅜ/ㅠ will be written as "oo" instead of "u" like in Yoona (윤아) even though I guess it should technically be Yun-ah? (As a sidenote, 'Kim Yuna' should seriously be spelled Yeon-ah (연아).) But Onew (온유) isn't spelled Onyu or Onyoo. omg romanization rules are so confusing. Maybe for names, they just go by aesthetics. That seems to be the most logical answer, lol.

Okay while I have the language bar set to Korean~ girl!Onew's name is not really Eunsook (은숙), it should be Onsook (온숙) because they kept the first part of all their first names, or a close approximation in Key's case. Similarly, Junghee (정희) should be Jonghee (종희). The other three names are correct though. (~quick proof of the Korean spelling~)

Now I'm googling Korean romanization rules. Such wonders and progress I make in my life! ?__?

Comments

[counttheplanes.livejournal.com]

LOL oh that's a good point, that for names in particular they go for what would be most pronouncable? That makes a lot of sense. I wonder if it's any better for people who use the... Roman...?? alphabet but whose languages don't adhere to the English pronounciation rules. omg I took like three linguistics classes but obviously I learned nothing from them; I mean people who speak French or Spanish or other languages that use the same alphabet but that maybe have more vowel blends and diphthongs or whatever than English does. But even that doesn't match up. The Yuri/Yoona thing really makes the inconsistency clear because there's no reason for the difference. Maybe they were following a precedent/already accepted spelling for Yuri, because the equivalent Japanese name is spelled that way too? Yeah, I'm also just confused lol. I THINK THEY GO BY WHAT LOOKS PRETTIEST TO THEM!!

(Tangent: it's kind of fun to scroll through the different languages that use 'Yuri' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri) as a first name, both for men and women.)

SHINee's ifandom drives me crazy lol. Oh well, it's not a big deal, even though I don't know how the mistake happened... isn't it more logical to have Onew-->Onsook/Jonghyun-->Jonghee than Eunsook and Junghee? Not that logic is ever really relevant in kpop fandoms...

[elapses.livejournal.com]

I don't know about Spanish but the French sound system lines up even worse to Korean sound system than the English one does. Like there's no equivalent to ㅓ at ALL in French (whereas we basically do in English, we just don't have a consistent way to spell it, which is I guess why "eo" exists as a romanization), and there's also no "j" so you'd end up naturally pronouncing Jonghyun something like ʒonghyoon? I do think it's probably mostly English that's considered (vs other languages with roman alphabets), because English-speaking asian countries like Singapore & the Philippines are generally better hallyu targets than Europe/Africa/South America et al. But good point about Yuri being a consistent/already existing romanization. (I think you might be right about the prettiest thing, hee.)

WAY more logical. The first time I saw a girl!SHINee fic I'm pretty sure I had to google it to be sure because the names were just off enough that you couldn't be sure...

[counttheplanes.livejournal.com]

omg I'm an airhead, I completely forgot about Hallyu or um general geopolitics in this discussion. I don't know what I was thinking lol. YES English is probably what they consider the most, and the basis of the romanization in the first place. why was I talking about French and Spanish lol.

Anyway, ty for the discussion so far! I... don't have anything of substance to contribute anymore. ;; I've just been sitting here saying all the names and different pronounciations out loud. "jamais... Jonghyun... Jyonhyon... hyooooon... Yuri... Yoori... Yurri..."

[elapses.livejournal.com]

NO I AM GLAD YOU BROUGHT IT UP BECAUSE NOW I SITTING HERE SERIOUSLY CONSIDERING HOW A FRENCH PERSON WOULD PRONOUNCE THESE NAMES ON SIGHT

and apparently that is fun for me idk :|