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