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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]

For instance, for the Modern Greek term "Ελληνική Δημοκρατία", which is usually translated as "Hellenic Republic", the usual transliteration to Latin script is ⟨Ellīnikī Dīmokratia⟩, and the name for Russia in Cyrillic script, "Россия", is usually transliterated as ⟨Rossiya⟩, but is pronounced exactly the same way as "Россия".

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 above example, ⟨λλ⟩ is transliterated ⟨ll⟩ though it is pronounced exactly the same way as [l], or the Greek letters, ⟨λλ⟩. ⟨Δ⟩ is transliterated ⟨D⟩ though pronounced as [ð], and ⟨η⟩ is transliterated ⟨ī⟩, though it is pronounced [i] (exactly like ⟨ι⟩) and is not long.

Transliteration does not alter the pronunciation. See "What is Transliteration? How is it different from Translation?" for more information.

Transcription, conversely, seeks to capture sound, but phonetically approximate it into the new script; "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. [Elinicí ðimokratía] is also pronounced slightly differently than the original Greek pronunciation, as it is a phonetic approximation: a transcription, rather than a transliteration.

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.

Definitions

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 without altering the pronunciation when spoken out loud, 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 which adapts written form without altering pronunciation may be very close to letter-by-letter 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 (adapt written form without changing pronunciation, however, use mixed scripts, such as scientific transliteration, resulting in WордПресс).

Many websites recognize transliteration as converting the written form to a different script without altering the pronunciation. Лет ит Би and Шерлок Холмс, according to Русская Википедия, are pronounced Let it Be and Sherlock Holmes, respectively, with no alterations. Similarly, Romanization can be far different from spoken pronunciation. 艾爾弗雷德 for example is pronounced far closer to Alfred than the romanization, Ài'ěrfúléidé, suggests. It is important to note that letter transcription and transliteration are not the same thing. 艾爾弗雷德 is a phonetic approximation of "Alfred" when pronounced Ài'ěrfúléidé and a transliteration of "Alfred" when pronounced exactly the same as "Alfred". The Chinese Wikipedia has the definitions right, with 2 separate articles for 字母转写 (Letter Transcription / Alphabetical Transcription) and 音译 (Transliteration)

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 ⟨ī⟩ ⟨i⟩ ⟨y⟩ and ⟨ei⟩ ⟨oi⟩ ⟨yi⟩. (As the ancient pronunciation of ⟨η⟩ was [ɛː], it is often transliterated as an ⟨i⟩ 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 that renders both as ⟨eu⟩. 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	Ellīnikī Dīmokratia	Eliniki Dimokratia	Hellenic Republic
Ελευθερία	Eleutheria	Eleftheria	Freedom
Ευαγγέλιο	Euaggelio	Evangelio	Gospel
των υιών	tōn yiōn	ton ion	of the sons

Herausforderungen

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" or "'" (for in Egypt it is silent) 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.

Adopted

References

^ "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

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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.
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

[1] "Transliteration". Retrieved 26 April 2021.

[2] Use of the acute accent to mark stress rather than tone is not formally IPA-compliant, but serves in this example to parallel orthography.

[3] See Koine Greek phonology.

[4] "Language log".

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