Unicode Technical Note #62

Transliteration of Korean Script into Latin Characters

Version	1
Author	Jaemin Chung
Date	2025-10-27
This Version	https://www.unicode.org/notes/tn62/tn62-1.html
Previous Version	n/a
Latest Version	https://www.unicode.org/notes/tn62/
Interactive Text Converter	https://www.unicode.org/notes/tn62/#interactiveTextConverter

Summary

This Unicode Technical Note provides the transliteration tables and notes in Section 4 of the ISO/TR 11941:1996 technical report, Information and documentation — Transliteration of Korean script into Latin characters, which was withdrawn by ISO in December of 2013, and therefore no longer available. The transliterations are still in use by the Unicode and ISO/IEC 10646 standards. This Unicode Technical Note also provides additional notes and an interactive text converter that is based on these transliteration tables and notes.

Status

This document is a Unicode Technical Note. Sole responsibility for its contents rests with the author. Publication does not imply any endorsement by the Unicode Consortium.

For information on Unicode Technical Notes, including criteria for acceptance, see Unicode Technical Notes.

Transliteration Tables

Table 1 — Consonants

Table 2 — Vowels

No.	Korean	Latin
No.	Korean	Method I	Method II
1	ㄱ	k	g
2	ㅋ	kh	k
3	ㄲ	kk	gg
4	ㄷ	t	d
5	ㅌ	th	t
6	ㄸ	tt	dd
7	ㅂ	p	b
8	ㅍ	ph	p
9	ㅃ	pp	bb
10	ㅈ	c	j
11	ㅊ	ch	c
12	ㅉ	cc	jj
13	ㅅ	s	s
14	ㅆ	ss	ss
15	ㅎ	h	h
16	ㅇ	zero _{[sic 1]}	zero _{[sic 1]}
17	ㄴ	n	n
18	ㄹ	r / l	r / l
19	ㅁ	m	m

No.	Korean	Latin
20	ㅏ	a
21	ㅓ	eo
22	ㅗ	o
23	ㅜ	u
24	ㅡ	eu
25	ㅣ	i
26	ㅐ	ae
27	ㅔ	e
28	ㅚ	oe
29	ㅑ	ya
30	ㅕ	yeo
31	ㅛ	yo
32	ㅠ	yu
33	ㅒ	yae
34	ㅖ	ye
35	ㅘ	wa
36	ㅝ	weo
37	ㅟ	wi
38	ㅙ	wae
39	ㅞ	we
40	ㅢ	yi

[sic 1]: Specifying zero was insufficient; per note 2) below, this should have been “(not transliterated) / ' / ng”

Notes to Tables 1 and 2

1) Consonant characters are transliterated either by Method I or by Method II. Those two methods shall not be used concurrently.

2) The Korean character No. 16 ‘ㅇ’ (pronounced as i'eung) is transliterated in three ways depending on its position in the syllable and in a polysyllabic word. It is not transliterated when in the initial position of a word. (It is described as “zero” in Table 1, No. 16, Consonants.)
EXAMPLE — 애기 (baby) aeki – Method I, aegi – Method II

In the final position of a syllable, it is transliterated “ng”.
EXAMPLE — 방 (room) pang – Method I, bang – Method II

In other positions it is transliterated by an apostrophe [see 4a) i) and 4b) i)].
EXAMPLE — 아이 (child) a'i – Method I and Method II

3) The Korean character No. 18 ‘ㄹ’ is transliterated r/l depending on its position in the syllable. The Latin character “r” is used in the initial position, and “l” is used in all other positions.

4) Whenever ambiguity appears at syllable boundaries, an apostrophe is used to mark the beginning of the next syllable in a polysyllabic word.

4a) If Method I is applied, ambiguity appears and therefore the addition of an apostrophe is needed in the following three cases.

i) When the zero-consonant character ‘ㅇ’ (No. 16) appears at the initial position of a non-initial syllable of a polysyllabic word.

EXAMPLE —	아이 a'i	고양이 ko'yang'i	굽이 kup'i	꽃이 kkoch'i
Compare:	밖에 pakke'e _{[sic 2]}	강에 kang'e	앉아라 anc'ara
	박게 pakke	간게 kanke	안자라 ancara
	바께 pa'kke

[sic 2]: This should have been “pakk'e”

ii) When the five double consonants ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ ㅉ ㅆ (Nos. 3, 6, 9, 12, 14) appear at the initial positions of the non-initial syllables of polysyllabic words.

EXAMPLE —	아까 a'kka	흰떡 hyin'tteok	오빠 o'ppa	어찌 eo'cci
EXAMPLE —	아씨 a'ssi

iii) When the four aspirated consonants ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅊ (Nos. 2, 5, 8, 11) appear at the initial positions of the non-initial syllables of polysyllabic words.

EXAMPLE —	유쾌하다 yu'khwaehata	애타다 ae'thata	아프다 a'pheuta
EXAMPLE —	기차다 ki'chata
Compare:	동녘에 tongnyeokh'e	같이 kath'i	앞에 aph'e	꽃에 kkoch'e

4b) If Method II is applied, ambiguity appears and therefore the addition of an apostrophe is needed in the following two cases.

i) When the zero-consonant character ‘ㅇ’ (No. 16) appears at the initial position of a non-initial syllable of a polysyllabic word.

EXAMPLE —	아이 a'i	고양이 go'yang'i	굽이 gub'i	꽃이 ggoc'i
Compare:	밖에 bagg'e	강에 gang'e	앉아라 anj'ara
	박게 bagge	간게 gange	안자라 anjara
	바께 ba'gge

ii) When the five double consonants ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ ㅉ ㅆ (Nos. 3, 6, 9, 12, 14) appear at the initial positions of the non-initial syllables of polysyllabic words.

EXAMPLE —	아까 a'gga	흰떡 hyin'ddeog	오빠 o'bba	어찌 eo'jji
EXAMPLE —	아씨 a'ssi

Additional Notes

The following notes describe some implicit aspects of the ISO/TR 11941:1996 technical report:

Method I is preferred by DPRK (aka North Korea), and Method II is preferred by ROK (aka South Korea).
Consonant pairs that appear only at the end of a syllabic block are simply treated as sequences of two basic consonant letters, and are transliterated as such (see 앉아라 anc'ara/anj'ara in the original technical report). They are listed in the table below for convenience:

Korean	Latin
Korean	Method I	Method II
ㄳ	ks	gs
ㄵ	nc	nj
ㄶ	nh	nh
ㄺ	lk	lg
ㄻ	lm	lm
ㄼ	lp	lb
ㄽ	ls	ls
ㄾ	lth	lt
ㄿ	lph	lp
ㅀ	lh	lh
ㅄ	ps	bs

Interactive Text Converter

Enter Hangul text in the box below to convert it to both transliteration methods:

ISO/TR 11941:1996 Method I (DPRK):

ISO/TR 11941:1996 Method II (ROK):

Options:
No apostrophes
Use UPPERCASE
(Character names in the Unicode and ISO/IEC 10646 standards are all-uppercase and cannot contain apostrophes.)

Modifications

The following summarizes modifications from the previous version of this document:

First version

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