Why different spellings for Taekyon?
Imagine writing Karate in a different way for each style such as: Shōtōkan Karate, Gōjū-ryū Garate, Kyokushin Karade, etc?
Well it’s basically what happened to Taekyon.
You have perhaps come upon one of these spellings :
Taekyon if you are from the Taekwon-do (ITF) or Taekwondo scene,
Taekyun if you came upon Master Hwang’s Youtube channel,
Taekkyon if you live in France (site) or the Czech Republic (site), or
Taekkyeon if you found out about the martial art through UNESCO (site)
All these different spellings have some logic behind them but unfortunately there is no unique spelling at this time among the bodies which promote Taekyon.
But wait, there are more spellings!
Htăik-kyen probably the 1st romanization of the word (1880)
Thaykkyen the Yale romanization (after 1942)
Tai-Kyon used in the British magazine “Martial Arts Illustrated” (1972)
Taekkyun a spelling used by the Korea Taekkyon Federation before Taekkyon
Several spellings in Korean? ✍🏼
To make things easier, Taekyon can be spelled correctly and officially in two ways : the ancient 택견 and the modern 태껸. A bit like grey and gray in English.
How does it sound in real? 🗣
You can hear native speakers pronounce both Korean words on Naver’s Korean dictionary website : link for 택견 and link for 태껸 (click on the blue speaker icon next to “All”).
Where do they come from?
Taekyun is a custom spelling coined by Grandmaster Ki-Hyun DO, similar to the one used by the daily newspaper Chosun Ilbo where the Korean vowel “ㅓ” is romanized “u”.
It’s used by the Kyulyun Taekyun Association (official site, Youtube), which focuses on the team sport and the martial art sides.Taekyon is also a custom spelling, used in an eponym book (Amazon) and in the French magazine Karate Bushido of January 2000 (see beneath pic).
Taekkyon is a custom spelling derived from T'aekkyŏn (source) the spelling in the previously official McCune-Reischauer (MCR) romanization system. The apostrophe after the “t” and the diacritic on the “o”, difficult to type on a keyboard, are removed.
This romanization is used by the Korea Taekkyon Federation (official site, Youtube), which focuses on the sport and olympic side and joined the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee in 2002Taekkyeon follows the current official Revised Romanization (RR) system although it points at 태껸 (source) while 택견 should be written as Taekgyeon in RR.
It’s used mostly by the Korea Taekkyeon Association (official site, Youtube), which focuses on the sport and the martial art sides.
Follow the official romanization… or not!
Should the unified spelling of 택견 follow the official Revised romanization or can it be chosen freely as Koreans can choose freely the romanized name shown on their passport?
And how are other martial arts doing?
In the case of Taekwondo we can see that it’s a custom spelling since 태권도 should be written Taegwondo in RR or T'aegwŏndo in MCR (source).
Other martial art federations also freely use their romanisation, eg. : the Korean saber 해동검도 which goes by Haedong Kumdo (source) or Haidong Gumdo (source).
So, why could Taekyon not have the same freedom in choice?
The pros and cons 👍👎
Taekyon is an interesting choice which is advertised by many Taekwon-do academies throughout the world.
It is also one of the shortest spellings and the pronunciation is easy and close to the original for most foreigners including English speakers. Besides, no organization use it so it might be an easier choice of unified spelling.Taekyun is great for English speakers but for other non-Koreans the “u” might be mistaken for a “oo” sound as it is usually pronounced that way in many languages of Europe such as German, Spanish, Italian, Czech, Polish, Hungarian and even English as well as in the MCR and RR systems.
Taekkyon is good but the double kk is unnecessary as most non-Korean speakers won’t be able to say it like a native anyway.
Taekkyeon is one character longer with its “eo” which is not so easy to read for non-Koreans unless they get acquainted with some Korean words beforehand. It is also spelled like this in most recent dictionaries, making it weigh more in the balance.
Taekgyeon is a worse choice to me as the “kg” makes it harder to read.
Taekyeon is a candidate I have seen for a unified name but because of “eo” it looks like a RR romanization although it is not completely : the “k” in RR corresponds to a strong and expirated “ㅋ” whereas the Korean spelling is written with “ㄲ” instead. I don’t like it for that reason .
My choice 😎
Taekkyon which I have used for many years when promoting the martial art is good but as for Taekyun, it’s reflecting on a particular federation and is thus naturally a harder choice for the other two federations to adopt.
Taekkyeon used by the third federation seems like a natural choice since it’s found in modern dictionaries and UNESCO picked it, but in the end, Taekyon gets my preference as it it’s used by no organization yet and is shorter and easier to write and read!
And you? What is your preferred spelling and why? Let me know!