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 been italized when they appear in the text, when entries are cross-referenced, they have been written in roman letters.
TUTTLE DICTIONARY
of the
MARTIAL ARTS
of
KOREA, CHINA & JAPAN
— A —
aah gwan (C) [Common Usage] second-place winner
abara (J) [Common Usage] ribs
Abe Gorodaiyu (J) [Master] a master of Taisha-ryu in the eighteenth century, said to have been the first to use the term kendo or ken no michi
Abe-ryu (J) [Style] a school of ken-jutsu founded by Abe Gorodaiyu
ae mok japchaegi (K) [Ssi Rum] neck-turning technique
agari zashiki (J) [Sumo] an elevated tatami area overlooking the practice ring in a sumo stable
ageru (J) [Common Usage] to raise
age tsuki (J) [Karate] rising punch
age uchi (J) [Karate] rising strike
age uke (J) [Karate] rising block, usually with the forearm
a geum son (K) [Taekwondo] arc hand
ago (J) [Common Usage] jaw
ago oshi (J) [Judo] jaw squeeze; a technique in the Kodokan Ju no Kata
ago uchi (J) [Karate] a strike to the jaw
ahop
