View source for Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Korea-related articles

{{style-guideline|MOS:KO|WP:MOS-KO|WP:MOSKOREA}}
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To write and edit [[Korea]]-related articles, please follow these conventions.  For consistent naming of Korean people, places, and historical terms, see also [[Wikipedia:Naming conventions (Korean)]]. For more general guidance on editing conventions, see [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style]].

== Korean language ==
{{Main|Korean language|History of the Korean language}}

=== Footnote or Hatnote ===
Sometimes, it is not obvious to readers which part of a [[Korean name|Korean personal name]] is the [[family name]]. You can add the {{tl|efn Korean name}} or {{tl|Family name hatnote}} template to make this clear.

{{tl|efn Korean name}} should be added after the first bolded instance of a person's name to produce an inline footnote. For example, on the article for [[Lee Myung-bak]], adding the markup <code><nowiki>{{efn Korean name|[[Lee (Korean surname)|Lee]]}}</nowiki></code> displays this in context:

'''Lee Myung-bak'''{{efn Korean name|[[Lee (Korean surname)|Lee]]}} (born 19 December 1941) is a South Korean former politician...
{{notelist}}

{{tl|Family name hatnote}} should be added to the top of an article to produce a hatnote. The markup <code><nowiki>{{Family name hatnote|[[Lee (Korean surname)|Lee]]||lang=Korean}}</nowiki></code> would produce this: {{family name hatnote|[[Lee (Korean surname)|Lee]]||lang=Korean}}

=== Introductory sentence ===
An encyclopedia entry with a title that is a Korean proper name should include both the Korean characters ([[Hangul]]) and the [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]] representations for English and Korean in the first sentence. The article title itself should generally be romanized according to the Romanization guideline below.

The template {{tl|korean}} may be used to add Korean characters and IPA representations to articles' introductory sentences in a consistent manner. For example:

:<code><nowiki>'''Lee Myung-bak''' ({{korean|hangul=이명박}}; {{IPAc-en|ˌ|l|iː|_|ˌ|m|j|ʌ|ŋ|_|ˈ|b|ɑː|k}}; {{IPA-ko|i mjʌŋbak|lang}}</nowiki></code>
:<code><nowiki>{{Korean|'''Lee Myung-bak'''|이명박|extra={{IPAc-en|ˌ|l|iː|_|ˌ|m|j|ʌ|ŋ|_|ˈ|b|ɑː|k}}; {{IPA-ko|i mjʌŋbak|lang}}|lead=yes}}</nowiki></code>

outputs:

:'''Lee Myung-bak''' ({{korean|hangul=이명박}}; {{IPAc-en|ˌ|l|iː|_|ˌ|m|j|ʌ|ŋ|_|ˈ|b|ɑː|k}}; {{IPA-ko|i mjʌŋbak|lang}})
:'''Lee Myung-bak''' ({{Korean|hangul=이명박|rr=|labels= }}&#59; {{IPAc-en|ˌ|l|iː|_|ˌ|m|j|ʌ|ŋ|_|ˈ|b|ɑː|k}}; {{IPA-ko|i mjʌŋbak|lang}})

Korean can be used in other infoboxes. Some, such as {{tl|Infobox settlement}} have {{para|native_name}} and {{para|native_name_lang}} which can be used for Korean. In this way 'English' infoboxes can be used for Korean topics; for instance {{tl|Infobox royalty}} should be used for Korean kings, see [[Sejong the Great]] for an example.

=== Romanization ===
There are two widely used [[Korean romanization]] systems:
*[[Revised Romanization of Korean|Revised Romanization (RR)]] has been the official system in [[South Korea]] since 2000 and was created by the government of South Korea to replace the McCune–Reischauer system.
*[[McCune–Reischauer|McCune–Reischauer (MR)]] is still often (though increasingly less often) used both inside and outside Korea. A variant was used as the official system in South Korea from 1984 to 2000. Another variant is currently the official system in [[North Korea]].

In general, use the Revised Romanization system for articles with topics about South Korea. Use McCune–Reischauer (not the DPRK's official variant) for topics about North Korea and topics about Korea before the division.

For example, [[Gyeonggi Province]], a South Korean province, uses RR instead of Kyŏnggi-do (MR). [[Kangwon Province (North Korea)|Kangwon Province]], a North Korean province, uses MR instead of Gangwon (RR). [[Hanja]], as a topic which generally relates to the Korean language, uses RR instead of Hancha (MR). In all three topics, both romanizations are introduced through a template.

There are cases in which the romanization differs from the [[WP:UCRN|common name]] used in English sources. As this is the English-speaking Wikipedia, use the name most common in English sources. For instance, [[Taekwondo]] is romanized as Taegwondo (RR) or T'aegwŏndo (MR), but uses the English spelling. 

If you are not sure how to romanize a word, please also provide its hangul so that another user can later verify or correct your romanization.

=== Hangul and Hanja ===
{{see also|Wikipedia:Naming conventions (use English)}}

Where relevant, [[#Korean templates|Korean templates]] should be used in preference to long lists of romanized, [[Hangul]], and [[Hanja]] spellings.

For articles that do not use infoboxes, the general rule is to transcribe a name or word into [[Hangul]] only once, at the first mention.  

Today, North Koreans do not use Hanja, and South Koreans rarely use it, even for place names or personal names. Hanja may be appropriate in specific cases, such as for disambiguation or in some historical contexts. 

There are 2 possible methods to introduce Hanja:

#'''Goguryeo''' ([[Hangul]]: 고구려; [[Hanja]]: 高句麗)
#'''Goguryeo''' ([[Hangul|고구려]]; [[Hanja|高句麗]])

Mandarin Chinese [[transcription into Chinese characters|transcriptions]] of indigenous Korean words and names (e.g. 寶拉 for the name [[Bora (Korean name)|Bora]]) are not Hanja, and typically do not merit inclusion in English Wikipedia articles.

===Spaces between words===
For [[Hangul]], the basic rule of thumb is that there are spaces between words that are each 2 or more syllables in length, while there is no space between 2 one-character words or between a one-character word and a 2-or-more-character word.  (The rules are of course actually much more complicated than this and depend upon the grammatical categories of the words in question, but this rule of thumb generally holds for nouns.)

While Hangul and mixed script (Hangul and Hanja together) use spaces between words, text written only in [[Hanja]] is usually written ''without'' spaces.  Thus, ''gosokhwa doro'' ("freeway" or "motorway") is written as 고속화 도로 (with a space) in Hangul, but as 高速化道路 (without a space) in Hanja.

==Categorization==
{{see also|Wikipedia:Categorization}}

Some pages or categories related to Korea need to be categorized within general categories.  For example, [[:Category:Military of South Korea]] is categorized within [[:Category:Military by country]].  In such cases, it is useful to sort the page or category by country (see [[Wikipedia:Categorization#Category sorting]]).  When categorizing Korea-specific content specific within general categories, the sort key should be set to one of the following:
* Use "Korea" for content related to Korea as a whole.
* Use "Korea, North" for content related specifically to North Korea.
* Use "Korea, South" for content related specifically to South Korea.

By standardizing the sort keys, readers can search for Korea-related content in a consistent manner.

It is also often the case that content related specifically to North Korea or South Korea should be categorized within a general Korean category.  For example, [[:Category:Religion in North Korea]] is categorized within [[:Category:Religion in Korea]]. In such cases, the sort key should be set to {{nowrap|" North Korea"}} or {{nowrap|" South Korea"}} (note the space in front of "North" and "South") so that they appear in the beginning of the page or subcategory list of the general Korean category.

==Accessibility==
Many browsers are not set up to correctly render Korean text so you should always provide some type of [[Romanization of Korean|romanization]] when referring to Korean concepts in articles.

If you are not using the {{tl|Korean}} template or other template designed for Korean characters, wrap your characters in {{tl|lang}} for [[WP:ATLANG|accessibility]] and [[Template:Lang/doc#Rationale|many other reasons]]. For example:
* Manhwa <code><nowiki>({{lang-ko|만화}})</nowiki></code>
produces:
* Manhwa ({{lang-ko|만화}})

==Korean templates==
A generic [[Template:Korean article|Korean article template]] has been created, with the following features:
*An appropriate infobox template (see below);
*A "See also: [[List of Korea-related topics]];" and
*A default [[:Category:Korea]] link.  Ideally, the article should link to the appropriate subcategory listed on the [[:Category:Korea|Korea-related categories]] page.

=== Infobox templates ===
{{Infobox Korean name|title=Infobox Korean name|hanja={{{hanja}}}|mr={{{mr}}}|hangul={{{hangul}}}|rr={{{rr}}}}}
* [[Template:Infobox Korean name]] - for general Korean and South Korean topics.  For North Korean topics, use the attribute "context=north".

===Geographic===
* [[Template:Regions and administrative divisions of North Korea]]
* [[Template:Regions and administrative divisions of South Korea]]
* [[Template:Eight Provinces of Korea]]
* [[Template:Korea-geo-stub]]

===Language===
* [[Template:Korean]]
* [[Template:Lang-ko]]

===Miscellaneous===
====With name table====
*[[Template:Infobox Korean company]]

====No name table====
* {{tl|WikiProject Korea}}
* {{Tl|History of Korea}}
* {{Tl|Five Grand Palaces (Joseon)}}
* {{Tl|Three Jewel Temples of Korea}}

== See also ==
* [[Wikipedia:Wikiproject Korea]]
* [[Wikipedia:Wikiproject Korea/Article guidelines]]
* [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Korea/Reliable sources]]

{{style wide}}
[[Category:Wikipedia Manual of Style (regional)|Korea]]
[[Category:Wikipedia romanization systems|Korea-related articles]]
[[Category:WikiProject Korea]]