Korean honorifics (hyung, unni, NAME-ssi...)

When I did the survey back ten years ago, I didn’t consider the ethnicity of the subbers, but I did obtain the three options for Romanization from authors of English books or research journal articles of people who were most likely ethnic Koreans from their names. The Revised Rules of Romanization essentially said Koreans were free to Romanize their own names any way they pleased. This is why the surname 이 is written Lee, Li, Yi, and Rhee, even though under the RRR it should be I.
It is interesting that viki personnel usually have the two-syllable given name of the Korean cast on Korean drama separated by a space.
On Netflix subtitles, the given names are usually hyphenated.

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@pixy_dreamer, Although nowhere close to being fluent, I did study Japanese, Spanish and French in school, so I totally get what you are saying about a combination of certain letters having different sounds in different languages. This is why hyphens are permissible in order to separate two syllables. I believe that’s how NF romanizes Korean given names as a rule.

@cgwm808, as you know, Korean culture only recently became popular worldwide through k-pop and k-dramas. In the past, I think the names of Korean celebrities were romanized more according to the preference of English speakers, but if you notice, the younger ones are choosing to romanize their given names without a space (Jungkook, Chani, Sunwoo, Rowoon, Sooyoung, etc.).

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@cgwm808, In the video I heard this type of name address, and if I’m not mistaken, it was So Ji Sub, or someone with a similar rapport. The actor answered to this type of name address, not being offended.

However, you did answer another question I did not voice/post, and that is if anyone could do so, based on your response, the answer is no. Thanks :sparkles::wink:

My personal opinion is that the job title and appellative should go before the name.
We don’t say “Kim doctor” or “Lee professor”, or “Sejong king” but “doctor Kim”, “professor Lee”,“king Sejong”. Just as we say “doctor Simmons”, “Professor Einstein”, “Queen Elizabeth” in English and in all other European languages. Because that’s what is natural in the English language.
In the same way, consistently, “brother John” and not “John brother”.
And of course, what about the -ssi meaning “Mr.”, “Ms” and “Miss”?
Would you want to say “Kim mister”, “Su Gyeong miss”? Of course not. So why sometimes like this and sometimes like that?
Korean consistently puts all these after the name, and we consistently put all these before the name. That’s how our languages work.

So in this I wholeheartedly agree with @cgwm808 who made that point eloquently in this thread:

On the other hand, I agree with @ajumma2 that the first name’s two syllables should be joined somehow to clearly differentiate the first name from the surname.
Either Lee Minho or Lee Min-ho is fine for me. As a subber and editor, the extra - is a bit bothersome, but it does keep the phonemes independent, and it avoids problems for the Portuguese viewers. Although… they should have learned by now that foreign languages don’t follow Portuguese rules. In Italian too, g+n is pronounced like the Spanish ñ. But no Italian will pronounce “Gangnam” as “ganñam”.
In my campaign to use Revised Romanization (official in Korea since 2000!!!) for names (of people, places, food, appellatives and everything else), I urge English-speaking people to go out of their bubble and learn that not all other languages are pronounced according to English rules (Italians living in America have had to adapt to mispronounciation, and their names are now horribly distorted, their Americanized descendents unthinkingly adopting the distorted version).
In the same way, viewers from other languages should open their horizons as well.

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Do you have an example of this? I’ve heard many Americanized Dutch names and they are hilarious :laughing:.

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Hello Bhai

Vincenzo Cassano is one of the type (k-drama)

The tribal bellydancer Carolena Nericcio. The name is Carolina, but Americans wouldn’t pronounce it correctly, they would pronounce it as CarolAINA, like the state. So she had to change the spelling to get the correct pronounciation.
About the surname, it’s a mess. I don’t even know what was the original surname Nericcio (prn.Neritcho) or Nericchio (prn.Nerikkio). But they pronounce it like the second although they write it like the first. So, based on what she did with her first name, I suspect that the original was Nericchio and she sacrificed the spelling to get the correct pronounciation.

You can hear it in the first seconds of this video, when they announce her:

Ralph Macchio. We pronounce it like Makkio, but I understand that Americans pronounce it Matchio.

@irmar Thanks for the examples :smile:
I think I have heard the double ‘c’ be pronounced as ‘k’ a lot.

@hydra_dynamo How is his name supposed to be pronounced? Every time I heard his name I felt… :thinking::laughing:.

I agree with you, with a minor difference. I agree that job titles, such as “Chairman”, “Doctor”, “President”, etc., and common honorifics, such as “Mr.”, “Mrs.”, “Miss”, etc., should come before the proper names. However, as a Korean speaker, it does bother me to see Korean-specific honorifics, such as “Oppa”, “Unni”, “Noona”, etc. before the proper names.

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@feyfayer His name is supposed to be pronounced as Win-Cen(as in cents)-Zo and Ca-Sa-No
or simply call him Corn-Salad :joy:

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:rofl: :rofl: they say it so dramatically as well :rofl:

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I thought Italian “c” was pronounced like “ch.” So shouldn’t it sound more like “Vin-Chen-Zo?”

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Ehm, no.
Win is a UI sound but we need a V sound, like Victory.
“cents” is an S sound, but Vincenzo has a CH sound, like child.
So
Vi (like victory) nce (like the “tche” in “witches”) n zo (tso)
Cassano *kah SS (careful, double S) ah no (O sound like "naught)

See also here:
https://www.pronouncenames.com/vincenzo

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Wow a whole damn video for Vincenzo :rofl:

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I can’t help saying “Bin-chen-jo”, though :joy::joy:

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we are the Corn Salad family

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Yepp the exaggeration is just on other level

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Yay, I know a Vincenzo and that’s how we say his name. Good to know we didn’t mess it up :smile:

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Lol actually many people say Bin-chen-zo

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