Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Korea-related articles
This guideline is a part of the English Wikipedia's Manual of Style. It is a generally accepted standard that editors should attempt to follow, though occasional exceptions may apply. Any substantive edit to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the talk page. |
Manual of Style (MoS) |
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The Manual of Style/Korea (MOS:KO) is a style guideline for Wikipedia articles that are significantly related to Korea.
This guideline should be considered subordinate and complimentary to the overall Wikipedia:Manual of Style. It is intended to provide extra guidance for Korea topics that the main MOS does not cover. MOS:KO should ideally not contradict the main MOS; if you believe it does, please post on the talk page. It should also ideally harmonize with other relevant manuals of style, particularly MOS:JA and MOS:ZH.
See also Wikipedia:Naming conventions (Korean) (WP:NCKO), which provides further guidance on how to render the names of Korea-related concepts in English.
English spelling variety
[edit]For South Korea–related articles, in general prefer the use of American English. Exception is if the article is significantly related to a country that uses a different variety of English; then consider using that variety.
English words of Korean origin
[edit]Some Korean-language terms have been adopted into the English language. If such a term can be found in at least one major reliable English-language dictionary (e.g. the famous traditional dictionaries) from a primarily English-speaking country, we consider it an English-language word. For example, "kimchi"[1] and "chaebol".[2]
Sometimes these terms have a WP:COMMONNAME spelling that differs from the output of typical romanization systems. As we are on the English Wikipedia, spell these terms using the most common spellings used in English sources. For instance, "chaebol" and not jaebeol (Revised Romanization) or chaebŏl (McCune–Reischauer). Also, do not italicize these words per MOS:FOREIGNITALIC. For how to pluralize such words, check what English dictionaries recommend. These words are often not pluralized; e.g. "kimchis" is uncommon.
Romanization
[edit]Many of the romanization decisions below are explained on the companion essay Wikipedia:WikiProject Korea/Romanization of Korean on Wikipedia.
When to romanize
[edit]If a Korean term does not have a clear WP:COMMONNAME spelling or translation in English (see WP:KO-TRANSLATENAME), you must romanize it.
In general, per MOS:NON-ENG, you should use non-English terms sparingly. Korean terms can be used if they significantly add to understanding. E.g. don't write "maekju" when "beer" is sufficiently descriptive.
What Korean romanization to use
[edit]When romanizing a term:
- Check to see if/how it is covered in WP:NCKO. That page may prescribe modifications to the strict romanizations dictated here.
- Refer to the table below, and select the most appropriate romanization system based on when or where the term is primarily notable. If notable in multiple categories, prioritize recency.
Primary notability | Romanization system | Example | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
|
McCune–Reischauer (MR) | kwagŏ (과거) |
|
|
Revised Romanization (RR) | jeongnang (정낭) |
|
|
Yale romanization | itwu (이두) |
Italicization of romanized terms
[edit]For the first time you use a romanized term, you should wrap it in the {{transliteration}} template, with parameters set to indicate which romanization system is being used. This will automatically italicize the term. Subsequent mentions of the term should not be wrapped, and just be italicized. Examples:
- RR:
{{transliteration|ko|rr|tteokbokki}}
→ tteokbokki (try hovering your mouse over the term) - MR:
{{transliteration|ko|mr|ttŏkpokki}}
→ ttŏkpokki - Yale:
{{transliteration|ko|yaleko|ttekpokki}}
→ ttekpokki
If the term is a proper noun, you should not italicize. In the transliteration template, you can disable italicization by setting italic=no
.
Capitalization of romanized terms
[edit]Except for romanized titles of WP:KO-WORKS, which should be in sentence case, capitalization should generally follow MOS:CAPS. Notably for us, if a romanized term is not a proper noun, you should not capitalize it; there may be exceptions based on what is commonly done in reliable sources, however.
Hangul
[edit]When to use Hangul
[edit]The inclusion of Hangul in Korea-related articles is encouraged, provided that it follows the guidelines in this MOS. It can be helpful in clarifying what Korean concepts are being discussed in the Latin script. Romanizations can sometimes be identical for different Hangul, be irreversible, or be unorthodox. Furthermore, for English-language terms that are translations or official names for Korean terms, it can be difficult to understand what the original Korean name was, which possibly hinders researching or linking the concept being discussed.
Korean term as main subject of article
[edit]When the main subject of an article is a Korean-language term, you should display Hangul in the first sentence of the lead per § First parentheses. You can also display Hangul in § Infobox Korean name.
Gloss
[edit]For any term that isn't the main term of the article, when a romanized or translated Korean term is used for the first time and if the term doesn't already have its own article, you should display Korean text for it in parentheses or a footnote using {{Korean}}. If the term already has its own article, link it.
- Dol hareubang are also called janggunseok (장군석).
- Dol hareubang (돌하르방) are also called janggunseok (장군석). (Dol hareubang has its own article already, doesn't need a gloss.)
Sometimes, even if a term has its own article, the original Hangul may be worth including anyway. In particular, if discussing etymology:
- Bulgogi is compounded of the Korean words bul (불; lit. fire) and gogi (고기; lit. meat).
- Bulgogi is compounded of the Korean words bul, which means "fire", and gogi, which means "meat".
Formatting Hangul
[edit]Hangul should be wrapped in preferably the {{Korean}} template.[note 4] There are multiple reasons why Hangul should be wrapped like this. Labels can be hidden by setting labels=no
. It is recommended to disable labels after the first use if Korean is the only non-Latin text present on the article. Repeated identical labels introduce visual clutter with little additional understanding. Translations can also be included using the |lit=
parameter.
If you don't need to put Hanja, romanization, or translation right next to Hangul, you can alternatively use {{Lang|ko|...}}
.
Example:
Markup | Renders as |
---|---|
{{transliterate|ko|rr|[[Bibimbap]]}} is compounded of the words {{transliterate|ko|rr|bibim}} ({{korean|비빔|lit=mixed}}) and {{transliterate|ko|rr|bap}} ({{korean|밥|lit=rice|labels=no}}). |
|
Italics and bolding for Hangul
[edit]Do not use italics or bold for Hangul, per MOS:BADITALICS. The templates {{nobold}}, {{noitalic}}, and {{normal}} can be used to remove this formatting in places where it is the default, such as within infoboxes.
Hanja
[edit]When to use Hanja
[edit]In contemporary North and South Korea, Hanja is rarely used. However, it has a number of uses on Wikipedia, especially for historical topics.
Hanja for main topics
[edit]For the main topic of an article, you should display the Hanja for the topic generally only once or twice. For a concept with significance before the division of Korea in 1945, display the Hanja in both the first sentence of the lead per § First sentence and in the {{Infobox Korean name}}. For concepts mostly significant after the division, display the Hanja only in the Infobox Korean name; Hanja tends to be less important after that time, and we wish to minimize the amount of less important information in the first sentence.
Examples:
Goguryeo is a pre-division concept and Hanja is frequently used for studies on it.
- Park Chung Hee (Korean: 박정희; Hanja: 朴正熙; November 14, 1917 – October 26, 1979) was the third President of South Korea.
Park Chung Hee is a person whose notability is mostly after the division, and Hanja is otherwise not particularly important for understanding who he was. Do not provide his name's Hanja in the first sentence, only provide it in the infobox.
Hanja for other terms
[edit]For terms that aren't the main subject of the article, follow similar principles to those used for Hangul in § Gloss. Additionally, if the topic is mostly relevant after the division, consider not displaying the Hanja at all if the Hangul is sufficient for grasping what is being discussed.
Providing Hanja alongside Hangul is helpful for disambiguation, explaining etymology, and for topics relating to time periods where the use of Hanja was widespread.
Formatting Hanja
[edit]In general, you should display Hanja and a corresponding Hangul reading together using the {{Korean}} template. If you wish to display only Hanja, use {{lang|ko|put Hanja here}}
. We recommend against the use of the parameters ko-Hani
and ko-Hant
; dealing with them adds complication for little practical gain.[note 5]
Partial Hanja
[edit]In some cases, only parts of Korean terms and names have corresponding Hanja. For example, a person's name with a native Korean given name: "Kim Da-som". In such cases, you can display Korean mixed script as Hanja: Korean: 김다솜; Hanja: 金다솜. Note that mixed script should match the spacing of the pure Hangul term, per § Spaces for Hanja.
Spaces for Hanja
[edit]While Hangul and Korean mixed script (Hangul and Hanja together) use spaces between words, text written only in Hanja is usually written without spaces. E.g. Korean: 고속화 도로; Hanja: 高速化道路; RR: gosokhwa doro; lit. freeway; the Hangul has a space while the Hanja does not.
Hanja vs. other Chinese characters
[edit]There are differences between Hanja and the Chinese characters used elsewhere in the Sinosphere that should be reflected on Wikipedia.
The following should not be considered Hanja:
- In some cases, Chinese-language sources transcribe Korean words into Chinese. For example, transcribing the native Korean name Da-som (다솜) as Duoshun (Chinese: 多順).
- In some cases, when a Korean person already has a Hanja name that is not widely known, Chinese sources may invent their own Chinese spelling of the name.[3]
- Furthermore, some sources (particularly those from mainland China) use simplified Chinese characters, which often do not overlap with contemporary Hanja.
- Japanese sources use kanji, another set of Chinese characters that also sometimes differs from those used in Korea. For example, the Hanja name for South Korea, 大韓民國, is rendered as 大韓民国 in Japanese.
- However, Japan tends not to invent kanji for people when unknown; it tends to rely on phonetic spellings in katakana instead.
- South Korea has also developed its own Chinese-language transcriptions for Korean terms; for example xinqi (Chinese: 辛奇) for kimchi (originally a native Korean word without Hanja). Unless explicitly accepted as such in dictionaries, such words should also not be considered Hanja.
Due to these issues, in general, prefer Korean-language sources (especially reliable dictionaries) for determining appropriate Hanja.
Unless particularly relevant (e.g. a person is significantly linked to both China and Korea), there is generally no need to mention Chinese transcriptions for Korean terms on articles primarily about Korea, for the same reason that listing a Chinese transcription of U.S. President Jimmy Carter's name is not particularly helpful.
Also, unless particularly relevant, do not include Chinese romanizations (e.g. pinyin) applied to Hanja. For example, do not write: Kim Ku (Korean: 김구; Hanja: 金九; pinyin: Jīn Jiǔ).
Article layout
[edit]First sentence
[edit]Family name footnote or hatnote
[edit]For articles about people, if the article title displays family name before given name (as is common in Korean names), you should provide either a {{Family name footnote}} or {{Family name hatnote}}, but not both.[note 6] The family name footnote should be placed just after the bolded mention of the person's name, with no space in between. If the family name comes after (i.e. the Western ordering), neither templates are needed.
Whether to use a footnote or hatnote is debated; footnotes offer several benefits.
First parentheses
[edit]In the first sentence of an article primarily about Korea, if there is a notable Korean-language equivalent for the term, display it in parentheses just after the bolded mention of the article's title. This is often only Hangul, but sometimes includes Hanja, per § Hanja for main topics. Make sure the displayed text abides by § Italics and bolding for Hangul and § Spaces for Hanja. Wrap the Korean text using {{Korean}}.[note 7] You can display romanization(s) in the template if they are useful[note 8] and not already the article title.
If showing Korean text does not add significant understanding, or if there is no bolded mention of the title in the first sentence (which is permissible, per MOS:AVOIDBOLD), parenthetical Korean text should be omitted. For example, for Healthcare in South Korea, putting "(Korean: 대한민국의 의료)" isn't particularly useful, as the title is a generic phrase and not a name or proper noun, and because the title is in English and is sufficiently descriptive.
You can also provide the following information in the same parentheses, separated by semicolon:
- An English-language abbreviation, if the article title is in English.[note 9]
- This should generally be placed first (to emphasize its relationship with the English term) and be bolded. For example, "The National Institute of Korean Language (NIKL; Korean: 국립국어원) is a..."
- IPA representations for Korean and sometimes English (if the word falls under § English words of Korean origin).
- Place the IPA(s) within the parentheses ideally just after their relevant terms, and wrap them in {{IPA}} (with
lang=ko
) for Korean and {{IPAc-en}} for English. For example, "Kimchi (/ˈkɪmtʃiː/; Korean: 김치, IPA: [kim.tɕʰi])". The English IPA was first, following the English word "kimchi" (§ English words of Korean origin). The Korean IPA followed the Hangul.
- Place the IPA(s) within the parentheses ideally just after their relevant terms, and wrap them in {{IPA}} (with
- Dates of birth and death, per MOS:BIOFIRSTSENTENCE. This should usually go last in the parentheses.
As parentheses can become lengthy and difficult to read, they should not include:
- Birthplace, per MOS:BIRTHPLACE
- Alternate names[note 10]
- Our goal is to keep the first sentence easy to parse at a quick glance. Too many synonyms, especially before a definition is even given, make the sentence hard to read.
If the parentheses become too crowded, consider putting less important information in one or more explanatory footnotes, preferrably variations of {{notetag}} or {{NoteTag}}. We recommend you do not use normal reference tags (<ref></ref>
) for explanatory footnotes. We would like to keep those reserved for citations.
Example:
Markup | Renders as |
---|---|
'''Lee Myung-bak''' ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|l|iː|_|ˌ|m|j|ʌ|ŋ|_|ˈ|b|ɑː|k}}; {{Korean|hangul=이명박}}; {{IPA|ko|i mjʌŋbak|lang}}; born 19 December 1941) |
|
Infobox Korean name
[edit]Infobox Korean name | |
Hangul | {{{hangul}}} |
---|---|
Hanja | {{{hanja}}} |
Revised Romanization | {{{rr}}} |
McCune–Reischauer | {{{mr}}} |
If the first sentence is cluttered, {{Infobox Korean name}} can be used in place of {{Korean}} or footnotes. For North Korean topics, the parameter |context=north
should be set. If the article topic significantly involves other countries from the Sinosphere, consider using {{Infobox Chinese}} instead, which has parameters for Korean and other Sinosphere languages.
If there is another infobox in the article (e.g. {{Infobox person}}), we recommend you merge the name infobox into the other infobox. This is usually accomplished by adding the |child=yes
parameter to the name infobox, then adding the name infobox code to a |module=
(or sometimes |embedded=
) parameter of the other infobox. For the parameter name, check the documentation for the main infobox (e.g. Template:Infobox person#Parameters).
Dates and numbers
[edit]Date format
[edit]We recommend the use of the month-day-year (March 1, 1919
) date format in prose; this format seems to be widely used by both Koreas in English-language publications. The day–month–year (1 March 1919
) format is permissible if the article has strong national ties with another English-speaking country that uses that format. Year–month–day (1919-03-01) can be used in tables, infoboxes, and references—if brevity is helpful—but should otherwise be avoided. The date format used in an article should be consistent and should not be changed without good reason or consensus.
Calendars
[edit]Prior to the 20th century, Korea used a lunisolar calendar: the Korean calendar. Per MOS:OSNS, while you're allowed to reference dates using this calendar, you must also provide an equivalent Julian calendar date for dates before October 15, 1582 or a Gregorian calendar date for dates on and after October 15, 1582. We encourage, for consistency with most of the rest of Wikipedia, that dates in the Julian or the Gregorian calendar be the primary dates given, with Korean calendar dates optionally given as side notes. If you do use the Korean calendar, you must clearly indicate which dates use which calendar.
Units of measurement
[edit]Per MOS:UNIT, prefer the use of SI units. If other Korea-related units are used in your sources, such as the li (ri) or pyeong, it is permissible but less preferred to use such units on Wikipedia. If you do use such units, you should link to relevant articles about the units and then provide conversions of them to SI units. Currently, {{Convert}} supports conversion from pyeong to other SI units for area.
Number ranges
[edit]To express ranges between numbers, use an en dash (1950–1953 Korean War). Do not use tildes (1950~1953 Korean War), as is done in South Korea.
Links
[edit]No direct links to the Korean Wikipedia
[edit]Per MOS:INTERWIKI, do not directly link to the Korean Wikipedia in articles. If the topic doesn't have an article on the English Wikipedia, use {{Interlanguage link}}s instead.
{{Interlanguage link|Hyeon Sun|ko|현순}}
→ Hyeon Sun
- [[:ko:현순|Hyeon Sun]] → Hyeon Sun (misleading blue link; gives impression English Wikipedia has article)
If the topic already has an article on the English Wikipedia, do not link to the Korean Wikipedia version at all. If you think the Korean version has information that would be useful on the English version, put the {{Expand Korean}} banner at the top of the article being linked.
Wiktionary links
[edit]It is possible to link to the Wiktionary definitions of Korean words and phrases. This typically involves the use of {{linktext}} or an external wikilink, e.g. [[wikt:예]]
.
Use Wiktionary links for Korean text sparingly. They should generally only be used in the following circumstances:
- If the link offers significant understanding of the main topic of the article that cannot be easily communicated within the article
- Linguistic contexts (e.g. when the topic is about lexical items)
Do not do the following:
- Link each character without regard for where word divisions actually are.
- E.g.
{{linktext|기|다|리|다}}
→ 기다리다. The individual definitions of the characters cannot be used to tell you what the overall word means.
- E.g.
- Segment text incorrectly.
- E.g.
{{linktext|대학|생선|교회}}
is incorrect;{{linktext|대학생|선교회}}
is correct.
- E.g.
- Add Wiktionary links to
- personal names (including art names, stage names, etc.). The meaning of a name does not describe a person, and the definition of a personal name is usually nothing more than "a personal name".
- terms that are not suitable for dictionary entries (e.g. 새터데이 – merely a transcription of English "Saturday" and is not used as a word in Korean).
Two or more links in a row are discouraged per WP:SEAOFBLUE.
Referencing Korean-language sources
[edit]For Korean-language sources, the following practices are encouraged:
- if you're using some variant of {{Citation}}, providing the original Hangul title in the
script-title
parameter (not thetitle
parameter) withko:
just before the title. - providing a translated title of the work, e.g. in the
trans-title
parameter. - preferring the use of English for parameters if unambiguous (e.g. for place names or publishers with known English names, use the English names). If you translate or romanize text yourself, provide the original Korean text in the reference.
- not squeezing the entire Hangul name into the
last
parameter. If you'd like to avoid the comma appearing in the name, consider using theauthor-mask
parameter as well.
Markup | Renders as |
---|---|
|
이성주 (2007). 청동기·철기 시대 사회 변동론 [Social Transformation from the Bronze to Iron Ages]. Seoul: 학연문화사. |
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^ Make sure to use the breve (ŏ ŭ Ŏ Ŭ), not the caron (ǒ ǔ Ǒ Ǔ).
- ^ Doing either of these practices is like writing "colo(u)r" or "color (colour)"; these clarifications rarely add significant understanding and just add clutter.
- ^ E.g. for 독립 it produces doglib instead of our preferred dongnip. Consider using this website instead.
- ^ You can alternatively use {{Lang-ko}}, but this is less preferred. It does not have separate parameters for Hangul and Hanja, and for RR and MR.
- ^ Using just
ko
is sufficient for rendering Korean text appropriately, and there are nuances and exceptions to the subvariants.Hani
only should be applied when there's purely Hanja. If anything in the Hanja parameter is not Hanja, including Hangul (§ Partial Hanja) or Latin text, the parameter is inappropriate.Hant
is for the Chinese language written in traditional characters (as opposed toHans
for simplified characters), not for Korean. In some environments,ko-Hani
displays the text as simplified Chinese andko-Hant
as traditional Chinese, not as Korean. - ^ We recommend this because of cases like the "Chairman Un Incident".
- ^ It is optional but recommended to have language labels displayed for the first usage of {{Korean}}. Follow § Formatting Hangul for how to manage subsequent labels.
- ^ E.g. if an article is about a person whose common name has an unusual romanization, like "Syngman Rhee (Korean: 이승만; RR: I Seungman; 26 March 1875 – 19 July 1965)...".
- ^ Make sure to abide by MOS:ABBR, particularly MOS:SOURCEABBR.
- ^ One place you can put one alternate name is outside of and after the first set of parentheses, for example "Gimbap (Korean: 김밥), also spelled kimbap, ...". If there are more than one alternate names, place them elsewhere in the lead.
References
[edit]- ^ "kimchi meaning". OneLook. Retrieved 2024-09-01.
- ^ "chaebol". OneLook. Retrieved 2024-09-01.
- ^ 홍, 순도 (2018-01-05). "송혜교 등 한류 스타 중국 이름이 기가 막혀". aisiatoday.co.kr (in Korean). Retrieved 2024-10-16.