마리

Korean

Etymology

Originally identical to 머리 (meori, “head”), its yang-vowel analogue. This is one of a number of Korean yang-yin vowel pairs which were originally one word with two connected but different meanings, leading to speakers using vowels to differentiate between the two meanings. See also 살 (sal, “age”) and 설 (seol, “Lunar New Year”).

Pronunciation

(SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key): [ma̠ɾi]
Phonetic hangul: [마리]

Romanizations
Revised Romanization^?	mari
Revised Romanization (translit.)^?	mali
McCune–Reischauer^?	mari
Yale Romanization^?	mali

Counter

마리 • (mari)

animals; head (of cattle); fish

Usage notes

As with most count words (a.k.a. classifiers), 마리 (mari) is preceded by native Korean numerals.

시 (si, “o'clock”)
시간 (sigan, “hours”)
번 (beon, “times”)
병 (byeong, “bottles”)
살 (sal, “years”)
명 (myeong, “people”)
사람 (saram, “people”)
분 (bun, “(honorific) people”)
갑 (gap, “packs”)
권 (gwon, “volumes”)
개 (gae, “items, units, objects”)
대 (dae, “vehicles, machines”)
잔 (jan, “cupful”)
장 (jang, “flat object, pieces of paper”)
채 (chae, “houses”)
봉지 (bongji, “paper bags”)
송이 (song'i, “flowers”)