Why 종로 is spelled “Jongno”?

 종로(鐘路), which means Bell Street, is one of the oldest main street in Seoul and you can see many street signs or subway station signs including 종로 and the English spelling “Jongno”. Why “Jongno” and not “Jongro”? Koreans even feel strange at first because they don’t really realize that they are pronouncing 종로 as /jongno/. I also thought that I’m pronouncing /jongro/ and I believe I’m not alone.

 

The reason is because there’s a national policy about “Standard Korean Language” called 표준어규정 and it defines how to pronounce Korean language. According to the rule, ㄹ is pronounced /ㄴ/ when it follows 받침 ㅁ or o. It is a type of consonant assimilation, meaning that ㄹ is nasalized after nasal consonants ㅁ or ㅇ.

Similar phenomena can be found in may other Korean words such as:

강릉 /강능/ (a city in Gangwon Province)

탐라 /탐나/ (old name of Jeju Island)

음력 /음녁/ (lunar calendar)

양력 /양녁/ (solar calendar)

 

The rule of 국어의 로마자 표기법 (Romanization of Korean) stipulates that the Romanization is based on standard Korean pronunciation as basic principles for transcription. That’s why 종로 is spelled “Jongno”.

 

I hope this blogpost was helpful. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below.