소년

Korean

Etymology

Sino-Korean word from 少年, from 少 (“few”) + 年 (“year; age”)

Pronunciation

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key): [ˈsʰo̞(ː)ɲʌ̹n]
• Phonetic hangul: [소(ː)년]
  • Though still prescribed in Standard Korean, most speakers in both Koreas no longer distinguish vowel length.

Romanizations
Revised Romanization?	sonyeon
Revised Romanization (translit.)?	sonyeon
McCune–Reischauer?	sonyŏn
Yale Romanization?	sōnyen

Noun

소년 • (sonyeon) (hanja 少年)

1. boy (older than 6 years old and so on)

   Coordinate term: 소녀(少女) (sonyeo, “girl”)