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]

For instance, for the Greek term ⟨Ελληνική Δημοκρατία⟩, which is usually translated as 'Hellenic Republic', the usual transliteration into the Latin script (romanization) is ⟨Hellēnikḗ Dēmokratía⟩; and the Russian term ⟨Российская Республика⟩, which is usually translated as 'Russian Republic', can be transliterated either as ⟨Rossiyskaya Respublika⟩ or alternatively as ⟨Rossijskaja Respublika⟩.

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.

Transcription, conversely, seeks to capture sound, but phonetically approximate it into the new script; ⟨Ελληνική Δημοκρατία⟩ corresponds to [eliniˈci ðimokraˈtia] in the International Phonetic Alphabet. While differentiation is lost in the case of [i], note the allophonic realization of /k/ as a palatalized [c] when preceding front vowels /e/ and /i/.

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, 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

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 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 [ɛː], it is often transliterated as ⟨ē⟩.) On the other hand, ⟨αυ, ευ, ηυ⟩ are pronounced /af, ef, if/, and are voiced to [av, ev, iv] when followed by a voiced consonant – a shift from Ancient Greek /au̯, eu̯, iu̯/. 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 and allophonic pronunciations in Modern Greek. Furthermore, the initial letter ⟨h⟩ reflecting the historical rough breathing ⟨ ̔⟩ in words such as ⟨Hellēnikḗ⟩ would intuitively be omitted in transcription for Modern Greek, as Modern Greek no longer has the /h/ sound.

Greek word	Transliteration	Transcription	English translation
Ελληνική Δημοκρατία	Hellēnikḗ Dēmokratía	Elliniki Dimokratia	'Hellenic Republic'
Ελευθερία	Eleuthería	Eleftheria	'Freedom, Liberty'
Ευαγγέλιο	Euangélio	Evangelio	'Gospel'
των υιών	tōn hyiṓn	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" or "'" (for in Egypt it is silent) and rarely even into "k" in English.^[2] 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. Examples of languages and writing systems and methods of transliterating include: