Possible to translate Korean words using on’yomi?

I’ve been curious if it were possible to translate Korean words—especially those with shared Chinese origins-using on’yomi?

For example, the Korean word kukkiwon, in kanji it would be: 国技院 therefore, ごっぎいん or ごっきいん?

4 comments
  1. Yes it’s possible

    I also heard that older Korean people that go to Japan or China for travel, usually get their way there through that.

  2. There are some words that are close enough between Japanese and Korean that you can figure them out. Words like 図書館 and 鞄 and 教科書 as well as random things like 熊 are mutually intelligible because they sound so similar.

    Your suggested pronunciation in the example you gave isn’t using onyomi, but if you had you would have gotten こくぎいん and it wouldn’t really communicate what I think you have in mind. The Japanese word 国技 is used to refer to sumo, but my understanding is that 国技院 is the name of the world taekwando headquarters, pronounced as I wrote it above.

    Edit: Sorry if I sound contradictory here, a Japanese speaker who is very familiar with taekwondo would be familiar with the name, pronounced using the onyomi I wrote. Others would potentially guess that you are referring to sumo

  3. According to the Kukkiwon’s [Japanese Wikipedia page](https://ja.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%9B%BD%E6%8A%80%E9%99%A2), こくぎいん is a valid pronunciation in a Japanese context, though if [Japanese outlets refer to the Kukkiwon using the kanji](https://www.google.com/search?q=%E3%83%86%E3%82%B3%E3%83%B3%E3%83%89%E3%83%BC%E5%9B%BD%E6%8A%80%E9%99%A2&client=ms-android-lge-rvo3&prmd=minv&sxsrf=ALiCzsZ5MpWaGCpZ93DuL-NvCkT8-kEFLA:1656143688600&source=lnms&tbm=nws&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiCwoOCkMj4AhUEKkQIHf3ECBgQ_AUoA3oECAIQAw&biw=320&bih=635&dpr=3.38), they will clarify that it is **韓国**国技院, since 国技 means “national sport.” As another user pointed out, in Japan’s case it’s sumo and not TKD.

  4. It’s not possible to do it mechanically because most Hanja correspond to Kanji that have multiple possible on’yomi in Japanese. Your best bet is to find out the Hanja for a word, then search for the equivalent Kanji in a Japanese dictionary (Usually the Hanja and Kanji are the same, but some of them are simplified in Japanese).

    If you have a Mac, you can use the built-in Dictionary app to search words in Korean and Japanese (and Chinese) at the same time. For example, take the word 요리 meaning “cooking”. I type 요리 into Dictionary and I get the Korean result with (料理) written after it. Clicking on the “料理” does a search for those Hanja and, since I’ve enabled the Chinese and Japanese dictionaries, I get results showing me that it’s “liaoli” in Chinese and “りょうり” in Japanese.

    Some Chinese origin words are unique to Korean, like 진구 (親舊), but the majority will mean something in Japanese.

Leave a Reply
You May Also Like