"Transliterate" redirects here. For the concept of being literate in all media, see Transliteracy. For the Wikipedia template, see Template:Transliteration.
Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus trans- + liter-) in predictable ways, such as Greek ⟨α⟩ → ⟨a⟩, Cyrillic ⟨д⟩ → ⟨d⟩, Greek ⟨χ⟩ → the digraph ⟨ch⟩, Armenian ⟨ն⟩ → ⟨n⟩ or Latin ⟨æ⟩ → ⟨ae⟩.[1]
Transliteration is not primarily concerned with representing the sounds of the original but rather with representing the characters, ideally accurately and unambiguously. Thus, in the Greek above example, ⟨λλ⟩ is transliterated ⟨ll⟩ though it is pronounced [l], ⟨Δ⟩ is transliterated ⟨D⟩ though pronounced [ð], and ⟨η⟩ is transliterated ⟨ē⟩, though it is pronounced [i] (exactly like ⟨ι⟩) and is not long.
Transcription, conversely, seeks to capture sound rather than spelling; "Ελληνική Δημοκρατία" corresponds to [elinicí ðimokratía][2] in the International Phonetic Alphabet. While differentiation is lost in the case of [i], note how the letter shape ⟨κ⟩ becomes either [c] or [k] depending on the vowel that follows it.
Angle brackets⟨ ⟩ may be used to set off transliteration, as opposed to slashes / / for phonemic transcription and square brackets for phonetic transcription. Angle brackets may also be used to set off characters in the original script. Conventions and author preferences vary.
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 is opposed to transcription, which maps the sounds of one language into a 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 transcription if the relations between letters and sounds are similar in both languages. In practice, there are some mixed transliteration/transcription systems that transliterate a part of the original script and transcribe the rest.
For many script pairs, there are one or more standard transliteration systems. However, unsystematic transliteration is common.
Difference from transcription
In Modern Greek, the letters ⟨η⟩ ⟨ι⟩ ⟨υ⟩ and the letter combinations ⟨ει⟩ ⟨oι⟩ ⟨υι⟩ are pronounced [i] (except when pronounced as semivowels), and a modern transcription renders them all as ⟨i⟩; but a transliteration distinguishes them, for example by transliterating to ⟨ē⟩ ⟨i⟩ ⟨y⟩ and ⟨ei⟩ ⟨oi⟩ ⟨yi⟩. (As the ancient pronunciation of ⟨η⟩ was [ɛː], it is often transliterated as an ⟨e⟩ with a macron, even for modern texts.) 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. The initial letter 'h' reflecting the historical rough breathing in words such as Ellēnikē should logically be omitted in transcription from Koine Greek on,[3] and from transliteration from 1982 on, but it is nonetheless frequently encountered.
Greek word
Transliteration
Transcription
English translation
Ελληνική Δημοκρατία
Ellēnikē Dēmokratia
Elinikí Dhimokratía
Hellenic Republic
Ελευθερία
Eleutheria
Eleftheria
Freedom
Ευαγγέλιο
Euaggelio
Evangelio
Gospel
των υιών
tōn uiōn
ton ion
of the sons
Challenges
A simple example of difficulties in transliteration is the Arabic letter qāf. It is pronounced, in literary Arabic, approximately like English [k], except that the tongue makes contact not on the soft palate but on the uvula, but the pronunciation varies between different dialects of Arabic. The letter is sometimes transliterated into "g", sometimes into "q" and rarely even into "k" in English.[4] Another example is the Russian letter "Х" (kha). It is pronounced as the voiceless velar fricative/x/, like the Scottish pronunciation of ⟨ch⟩ in "loch". This sound is not present in most forms of English and is often transliterated as "kh" as in Nikita Khrushchev. 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.
Look up transliteration in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Listen to this article (4 minutes)
This audio file was created from a revision of this article dated 13 April 2005 (2005-04-13), and does not reflect subsequent edits.
International Components for Unicode transliteration services ICU User Guide: Transforms
Transliteration history 2007-12-13 at the Wayback Machine – 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.
Localtyping.com implements google transliteration library and also allows to create To-Do Lists in English and Transliterated Languages.
onlinemarathityping.com Use Google transliteration for easy typing.
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
January 13, 2023
transliteration, confused, with, translation, literary, translation, loan, translation, transliterate, redirects, here, concept, being, literate, media, transliteracy, wikipedia, template, template, also, literal, translation, this, article, needs, additional,. Not to be confused with Translation literary translation or loan translation Transliterate redirects here For the concept of being literate in all media see Transliteracy For the Wikipedia template see Template Transliteration See also Literal translation This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Transliteration news newspapers books scholar JSTOR May 2012 Learn how and when to remove this template message Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters thus trans liter in predictable ways such as Greek a a Cyrillic d d Greek x the digraph ch Armenian ն n or Latin ae ae 1 For instance for the Modern Greek term Ellhnikh Dhmokratia which is usually translated as Hellenic Republic the usual transliteration to Latin script is Ellenikḗ Demokratia and the name for Russia in Cyrillic script Rossiya is usually transliterated as Rossiya Transliteration is not primarily concerned with representing the sounds of the original but rather with representing the characters ideally accurately and unambiguously Thus in the Greek above example ll is transliterated ll though it is pronounced l D is transliterated D though pronounced d and h is transliterated e though it is pronounced i exactly like i and is not long Transcription conversely seeks to capture sound rather than spelling Ellhnikh Dhmokratia corresponds to elinici dimokratia 2 in the International Phonetic Alphabet While differentiation is lost in the case of i note how the letter shape k becomes either c or k depending on the vowel that follows it Angle brackets may be used to set off transliteration as opposed to slashes for phonemic transcription and square brackets for phonetic transcription Angle brackets may also be used to set off characters in the original script Conventions and author preferences vary Contents 1 Definitions 2 Difference from transcription 3 Challenges 4 Adopted 5 See also 6 References 7 External linksDefinitions EditSystematic 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 is opposed to transcription which maps the sounds of one language into a 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 transcription if the relations between letters and sounds are similar in both languages In practice there are some mixed transliteration transcription systems that transliterate a part of the original script and transcribe the rest For many script pairs there are one or more standard transliteration systems However unsystematic transliteration is common Difference from transcription EditIn Modern Greek the letters h i y and the letter combinations ei oi yi are pronounced i except when pronounced as semivowels and a modern transcription renders them all as i but a transliteration distinguishes them for example by transliterating to e i y and ei oi yi As the ancient pronunciation of h was ɛː it is often transliterated as an e with a macron even for modern texts On the other hand ey is sometimes pronounced ev and sometimes ef depending on the following sound A transcription distinguishes them but this is no requirement for a transliteration The initial letter h reflecting the historical rough breathing in words such as Ellenike should logically be omitted in transcription from Koine Greek on 3 and from transliteration from 1982 on but it is nonetheless frequently encountered Greek word Transliteration Transcription English translationEllhnikh Dhmokratia Ellenike Demokratia Eliniki Dhimokratia Hellenic RepublicEley8eria Eleutheria Eleftheria FreedomEyaggelio Euaggelio Evangelio Gospeltwn yiwn tōn uiōn ton ion of the sonsChallenges EditA simple example of difficulties in transliteration is the Arabic letter qaf It is pronounced in literary Arabic approximately like English k except that the tongue makes contact not on the soft palate but on the uvula but the pronunciation varies between different dialects of Arabic The letter is sometimes transliterated into g sometimes into q and rarely even into k in English 4 Another example is the Russian letter H kha It is pronounced as the voiceless velar fricative x like the Scottish pronunciation of ch in loch This sound is not present in most forms of English and is often transliterated as kh as in Nikita Khrushchev 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 Ancient Near East Transliterating cuneiform languages Transliteration of Ancient Egyptian see also Egyptian hieroglyphs Hieroglyphic Luwian Armenian language Avestan Brahmic family Devanagari see Devanagari transliteration Pali Tocharian Malayalam see Romanization of Malayalam Chinese language Transcription into Chinese characters Romanization of Chinese Cyrillization of Chinese Click languages of Africa Khoisan languages Bantu languages English language Hebraization of English Greek language Romanization of Greek Greek alphabet Linear B Greeklish Japanese language Romanization of Japanese Cyrillization of Japanese Khmer language Romanization of Khmer Korean language Romanization of Korean Persian language Persian alphabet Cyrillic alphabet Romanization of Persian Persian chat alphabet Semitic languages Ugaritic alphabet Hebrew alphabet Romanization of Hebrew Arabic alphabet Romanization of Arabic Arabic chat alphabet Slavic languages written in the Cyrillic or Glagolitic alphabets Romanization of Belarusian Romanization of Bulgarian Romanization of Russian Romanization of Macedonian Romanization of Serbian Romanization of Ukrainian Volapuk encoding Thai language Romanization of Thai Urdu Language Romanization of UrduAdopted EditBuckwalter transliteration Devanagari transliteration Hans Wehr transliteration International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration Scientific transliteration of Cyrillic Transliteration of Ancient Egyptian Transliterations of Manchu Wylie transliterationSee also EditCyrillization International Components for Unicode ISO 15924 Latin script List of ISO transliterations Orthographic transcription Phonemic orthography Phonetic transcription Romanization Spread of the Latin script Substitution cipher Transcription linguistics References Edit Transliteration Retrieved 26 April 2021 Use of the acute accent to mark stress rather than tone is not formally IPA compliant but serves in this example to parallel orthography See Koine Greek phonology Language log External links Edit Look up transliteration in Wiktionary the free dictionary Listen to this article 4 minutes source source This audio file was created from a revision of this article dated 13 April 2005 2005 04 13 and does not reflect subsequent edits Audio help More spoken articles International Components for Unicode transliteration services ICU User Guide Transforms Transliteration history Archived 2007 12 13 at the Wayback Machine 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 onlinemarathityping com Use Google transliteration for easy typing 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 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Transliteration amp oldid 1132123721, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
