Transliteration

This is opposed to transcription, which maps the sounds of one language to the script of another language. Still, most transliterations map the letters of the source script to letters pronounced similarly in the goal script, for some specific pair of source and goal language.

Another usage of the word transliteration is to describe the use of an English computer keyboard to type in a language that uses a different alphabet, such as in Russian. While the first usage of the word implies seeking the best way to render foreign words into a particular language, the typing transliteration is a purely pragmatic process of inputting text in a particular language. Transliteration from English letters is particularly important for users who are only familiar with the English keyboard layout, and hence could not type quickly in a different alphabet even if their software would actually support a keyboard layout for another language. Some programs, such as the Russian language word processor Hieroglyph provide typing by transliteration as an important feature. The rest of the article concerns itself with the first meaning of the word, that is rendering foreign words into a different alphabet.

If the relations between letters and sounds are similar in both languages, a transliteration may be (almost) the same as a transcription. In practice, there are also some mixed transliteration/transcription systems, that transliterate a part of the original script and transcribe the rest. Greeklish is an example of such a mixture.

In a broader sense, the word transliteration is used to include both transliteration in the narrow sense and transcription. Anglicizing is a transcription method. Romanization encompasses several transliteration and transcription methods.

Table of contents

1 Example to illustrate the difference between transliteration and transcription 2 Uses of transliteration 3 Issues in transliterating particular languages 4 Transliteration sites

Example to illustrate the difference between transliteration and transcription

In Modern Greek, the letters <η> <ι> <υ> and the letter combinations <ει> <oι> <υι> are all pronounced [i] (in SAMPA notation). A transcription consequently renders them all as <i>, but a transliteration still distinguishes them, for example by transliterating to <ē> <i> <y> and <ei> <oi> <yi>. (As the old Greek pronunciation of <η> was [E:], this proposal uses the character appropriate for an Old Greek transliteration or transcription <ē>, an <e> with a macron.) On the other hand, <ευ> is sometimes pronounced [ev] and sometimes [ef], depending on the following sound. A transcription distinguishes them, but this is no requirement for a transliteration.

Greek word	Transliteration	Transcription
Ελληνική Δημοκρατία	Ellēnikē Dēmokratia	Elliniki Dimokratia
Ελευθερία	eleutheria	eleftheria
Ευαγγέλιο	Euaggelio	Evangelio
των υιών	tōn yiōn	ton ion

Uses of transliteration

Transliterations in the narrow sense are used in situations where the original script is not available to write down a word in that script, while still high precision is required. For example, traditional or cheap typesetting with a small character set; editions of old texts in scripts not used any more (such as Linear B); some library catalogues (see www.ifla.org/VII/s13/pubs/isbdg0.htm).

For example, the Greek language is written in the 24-letter Greek alphabet, which overlaps with, but differs from, the 26-letter version of the Roman alphabet in which English is written. Etymologies in English dictionaries often identify Greek words as ancestors of words used in English. Consequently, most such dictionaries transliterate the Greek words into Roman letters.

Transliteration in the broader sense is a necessary process when you use words or concepts expressed in a language with a script other than yours.

The idea of transliteration is complicated by the genuine use in multiple languages of different common nouns for the same person, place or thing. Thus, "Muhammad" is in common use now in English and "Mohammed" is less popular, though there are excellent reasons for each transcription (and similarly for "Muslim" and "Moslem"). Muslim and Mohammedan are less interchangeable, but the typical French usage "Musulman" is considered offensively colonialist in English language contexts.

Transliteration is also used for simple encryption.

Many people believe that transliterations of the original language should be preferred for places, people and things over anglicised terms. For example, they might hold that what is now commonly called in English Munich should instead be called in English München, just as it in German. There is an increasing tendency in English to do exactly this, although the anglicised forms of most words are still more common, with a few notable exceptions (e.g. Beijing). Others do not approve of this trend.

Explanations for this may be a desire on the part of English speakers to be "authentic" and "correct", the increasing usage of English by native speakers of non-English languages (who may prefer to use their native language form for a native person or place even in English), and as a reaction to the spread of the English language, which threatens non-English languages--using the native forms of such words may be viewed as a way of compensating for the use of English.

Issues in transliterating particular languages

• Transliterating cuneiform languages
• Romaji Tranliterating Japanese to latin script
• Transcribing English to Japanese
• Cyrillization of Japanese
• Transliteration of Russian into English
• Transliteration of Indic languages
• Transliteration systems for Chinese to latin script
  • Pinyin
  • Wade-Giles
  • Bopomofo
  • Penkyamp

• Automatic Cyrillic Converter

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