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Initial sound rule ( Korean: 두음법칙; Hanja: 頭音法則; RR: dueum beopchik ) is series of changes to hangul, the writing system for the Korean language, made in South Korea to better reflect modern Korean phonology. The changes affect syllable-initial ㄹ r and ㄴ n sounds in Sino-Korean vocabulary under certain conditions. North Korea orthography does not recognize this rule, making it one of a number of North–South differences in the Korean language.
In native Korean words, ㄹ r does not occur word initially, unlike in Chinese loans. As confirmed in literature from as early the 16th century, pronunciation of these Sino-Korean words had been nativized enough that these new sounds began to be reflected. In the 17th century, the original version of Hendrick Hamel's book also records place names that reflect the rules of pronunciation, such as Naedjoo for Naju (hanja: 羅州) and Jeham for Yeongam (hanja: 靈巖). In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there were also cases where the surname Lee was also romanized as "Ye", "Yi", etc.
Thus, professor emeritus Ryeo Jeoung-dong (Ko: 려증동)'s claim that it was first organized that the initial sound rule and the final consonant notation in the Korean spelling system for elementary schools in 1912 during the Japanese colonial period is not true. Professor Emeritus Ryeo Jeoung-dong of the Department of Korean Literature at Gyeongsang National University is South Korea's representative proponent of the abolition of the initial sound rule. [1] [2]
In modern Korean, the South Korean standard language recognizes the initial sound rule except for a few conditions. While the North Korean standard language briefly adhered to the initial sound rule, it soon abandoned it. North Korea does not adhere to the rule today except in a few cases, and instead uses the earlier spellings of the Sino-Korean vocabulary.
The National Institute of Korean Language made three rules regarding initial sounds: