Transliteration
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Transliteration is the attempt to represent the text of one language in the writing system of another. For instance, for the Greek term Template:Angbr, which is usually translated as Template:Gloss, the usual transliteration into the Latin script (romanization) is Template:Angbr;Script error: No such module "Unsubst". and the Russian term Template:Angbr, which is usually translated as Template:Gloss, can be transliterated either as Template:Angbr or alternatively as Template:Angbr.
Transliteration is the process of representing or intending to represent a word, phrase, or text in a different script or writing system. Transliterations are designed to convey the pronunciation of the original word in a different script, allowing readers or speakers of that script to approximate the sounds and pronunciation of the original word. Transliterations do not change the pronunciation of the word. Thus, in the Greek example above, Template:Angbr is transliterated as Template:Angbr, though it is pronounced exactly the same way as Template:Angbr, i.e. Template:IPAblink; likewise, Template:Angbr is transliterated as Template:Angbr, though pronounced as Template:IPAblink rather than Template:IPAblink, and Template:Angbr is transliterated Template:Angbr, though pronounced as Template:IPAblink (exactly like Template:Angbr) rather than Template:IPAblink or Template:IPAblink, and is not a long vowel.
Transcription, conversely, seeks to capture sound, but phonetically approximate it into the new script; Template:Angbr corresponds to Script error: No such module "IPA". in the International Phonetic Alphabet. Here, Template:Angbr palatalizes the preceding Template:Angbr, and thus is represented in IPA with Template:IPAblink, the palatal allophone of Template:IPAslink. Likewise, the tonos diacritic Template:Angbr to denote stress of a syllable is transcribed as Template:Angbr IPA in IPA.
Angle brackets <templatestyles src="Mono/styles.css" />Template:Angbr may be used to set off transliteration, as opposed to slashes <templatestyles src="Mono/styles.css" />/ / for phonemic transcription and square brackets <templatestyles src="Mono/styles.css" />[ ] for phonetic transcription. Angle brackets may also be used to set off characters in the original script. Conventions and author preferences vary.
Definitions
Script error: No such module "Unsubst". Systematic transliteration is a mapping from one system of writing into another, typically grapheme to grapheme. Most transliteration systems are one-to-one, so a reader who knows the system can reconstruct the original spelling.
Transliteration, which adapts written form Template:Em altering the pronunciation when spoken out, is opposed to letter transcription, which is a letter by letter conversion of one language into another writing system. Still, most systems of transliteration map the letters of the source script to letters pronounced similarly in the target script, for some specific pair of source and target language. Transliteration may be very close to letter-by-letter transcription if the relations between letters and sounds are similar in both languages.
For many script pairs, there are one or more standard transliteration systems. However, unsystematic transliteration is common, as for Burmese, for instance.
Difference from transcription
Script error: No such module "Unsubst". In Modern Greek, the letters ⟨η, ι, υ⟩ and the letter combinations ⟨ει, oι, υι⟩ are pronounced Script error: No such module "IPA". (except when pronounced as semivowels), and a modern transcription renders them as ⟨i⟩. However, a transliteration distinguishes them; for example, by transliterating them as ⟨ē, i, y⟩ and ⟨ei, oi, yi⟩. (As the ancient pronunciation of ⟨η⟩ was Script error: No such module "IPA"., it is often transliterated as ⟨ē⟩.) On the other hand, ⟨αυ, ευ, ηυ⟩ are pronounced Script error: No such module "IPA"., and are voiced to Script error: No such module "IPA". when followed by a voiced consonant – a shift from Ancient Greek Script error: No such module "IPA".. A transliteration would render them all as ⟨au, eu, iu⟩ no matter the environment these sounds are in, reflecting the traditional orthography of Ancient Greek, yet a transcription would distinguish them, based on their phonemic Template:Em allophonic pronunciations in Modern Greek. Furthermore, the initial letter ⟨h⟩ reflecting the historical rough breathing ⟨ ̔⟩ in words such as ⟨Template:Translit⟩ would intuitively be omitted in transcription for Modern Greek, as Modern Greek no longer has the Script error: No such module "IPA". sound.
| Greek word | Transliteration | Transcription | English translation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Script error: No such module "Lang". | Script error: No such module "lang". | Script error: No such module "lang". | Template:Gloss |
| Script error: No such module "Lang". | Script error: No such module "lang". | Script error: No such module "lang". | Template:Gloss |
| Script error: No such module "Lang". | Script error: No such module "lang". | Script error: No such module "lang". | Template:Gloss |
| Script error: No such module "Lang". | Script error: No such module "lang". | Script error: No such module "lang". | Template:Gloss |
Challenges
A simple example of difficulties in transliteration is the Arabic letter qāf. It is pronounced, in literary Arabic, approximately like English Script error: No such module "IPA"., except that the tongue makes contact not on the soft palate but on the uvula, but the pronunciation varies among dialects of Arabic. The letter is sometimes transliterated into Template:Angle bracket, sometimes into Template:Angle bracket or Template:Angle bracket (for in Egypt it is silent), and rarely even into Template:Angle bracket in English.[1] Another example is the Russian letter ‹Х› (kha). It is pronounced as the voiceless velar fricative Script error: No such module "IPA"., like the Scottish pronunciation of Template:Angbr in "loch". This sound is not present in most forms of English and is often transliterated as Template:Angle bracket as in Template:Angle bracket. Many languages have phonemic sounds, such as click consonants, which are quite unlike any phoneme in the language into which they are being transliterated.
Some languages and scripts present particular difficulties to transcribers. These are discussed on separate pages. Examples of languages and writing systems and methods of transliterating include:
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- Ancient Near East
- Transliterating cuneiform languages
- Transliteration of Ancient Egyptian (see also Egyptian hieroglyphs)
- Hieroglyphic Luwian
- Armenian language
- Avestan
- Brahmic family
- Celtic languages
- Chinese language
- Click languages of Africa
- English language
- French language
- Georgian language
- Greek language
- Hmong language
- Japanese language
- Khmer language
- Korean language
- Mongolian language
- Northwest Caucasian languages
- Pashto
- Persian language
- Semitic languages
- Slavic languages written in the Cyrillic or Glagolitic alphabets
- Tai languages
- Turkic language
- Urdu language
Adopted
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See also
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References
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External links
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- International Components for Unicode transliteration services Script error: No such module "webarchive". ICU User Guide: Transforms
- Transliteration history Script error: No such module "webarchive". – history of the transliteration of Slavic languages into Latin alphabets.
- Transliteration of Non-Latin scripts – Collection of transliteration tables for many non-Latin scripts maintained by Thomas T. Pedersen.
- Unicode Transliteration Guidelines
- United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN) – working group on Romanization Systems.
- Library of Congress: Romanization Tables
- Localtyping.com implements google transliteration library and also allows to create To-Do Lists in English and Transliterated Languages.
- 24x7offshoring.com Transliterationenglish.
- Usage of Transliterations – condensed description of the definition of transliteration and its usage.
- G. Gerych. Transliteration of Cyrillic Alphabets. Ottawa University, April 1965. 126 pp. – historical overview of the concept of transliteration and its evolution and application
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