여자
Korean
editEtymology
editSino-Korean word from 女子, from 女 (“female”) + 子 (“offspring”)
Pronunciation
edit- (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA(key): [jʌ̹d͡ʑa̠]
Audio: (file)
- Phonetic hangul: [여자]
| Romanizations | |
|---|---|
| Revised Romanization? | yeoja |
| Revised Romanization (translit.)? | yeoja |
| McCune–Reischauer? | yŏja |
| Yale Romanization? | yeca |
South Gyeongsang (Busan) pitch accent: 여자의 / 여자에 / 여자까지
Syllables in red take high pitch. This word always takes high pitch on both syllables, and lowers the pitch of subsequent suffixes.
| South Korean Standard Language |
여자(女子) (yeoja) |
|---|---|
| North Korean Standard Language |
녀자(女子) (nyeoja) |
Noun
editUsage notes
editKorean has a number of words equivalent to English "man" and "woman".
- Sino-Korean 남자 (男子, namja, “boy; guy; man”) and 여자 (女子, yeoja, “girl; woman”) are the most common words, but can have a somewhat informal connotation.
- Sino-Korean 남성 (男性, namseong, “male; men”) and 여성 (女性, yeoseong, “female; women”) refer to men and women as groups—though pluralized 남자들 (namja-deul, “the boys; the guys; the men”) and 여자들 (yeoja-deul, “the girls; the women”) is informally more common for this purpose—or to individual adult men and women in formal or polite contexts.
- Sino-Korean 여인 (女人, yeoin, “woman”) is literary. There is no male counterpart.
- The bare Sino-Korean morphemes 남 (男, nam, “male”) and 여 (女, yeo, “female”) is generally used in formal contexts, especially when referring to each gender as a collective but also for male or female individuals in more legalistic contexts. They are commonly written in hanja even when the rest of the text is in pure Hangul script.
- Native 사내 (sanae, “man”) and 계집 (gyejip, “woman”) are not as commonly used. 사내 (sanae) often has a connotation of machismo or manliness, while 계집 (gyejip) has become offensive and derogatory.
Note that in Early Modern Korean (1600—c. 1900) and in contemporary Standard North Korean, Sino-Korean 여 (女, yeo, “female”) is written and pronounced 녀 (nyeo), hence 녀자 (女子, nyeoja), 녀성 (女性, nyeoseong), 녀인 (女人, nyeoin).