In my taekwondo class the instructors tend to pronounce the Sino-Korean version of the number 2 as Yi or "yee" - as opposed to "ee" (이). Is this correct and, if so, how is this written in Hangul?
--- Thanks!
1 Answer
Koreans have the syllable "이" which is pronounced like saying the letter "e".
However the romanization of this is quite a challenge. We've seen (in names)
Lee, Yi, Ree, Rhee (and etc).
My guess is that the instructors saw the sino-korean numbers romanized and are thusly pronouncing it as seen in romanized sino-korean "Yi"; however, this is not the correct pronunciation. See the youtube video on English Long E sound /i/ because it is nearly identical.
And as you stated in the question, the correct hangul for the sino-korean number two is
이
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Thanks for the confirmation! While I can't read/speak Korean fluently (yet), my son and I have taken Korean (Hangul) lessons off and on for a while now and I couldn't understand how this was correct. I agree that they are likely using the romanized (is that a word?) pronunciation. Commented Jan 13, 2018 at 22:46
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Yes, romanization is (according to wiki): (also spelled romanisation), in linguistics, is the conversion of writing from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. I think the instructors still should get an A for effort, though :) and we can pronounce it Yay just to fit in.– 제이 죤스톤Commented Jan 13, 2018 at 22:48
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Yeah, I'm definitely not knocking the instructors! Just looking for the correct pronunciation since we count a lot in class (using native Korean numbers as well as Sino-Korean numbers). Thanks again! Commented Jan 13, 2018 at 22:50