Romanization
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Inlinguistics,romanizationis the conversion of text from a differentwriting systemto theRoman (Latin) script,or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization includetransliteration,for representing written text, andtranscription,for representing the spoken word, and combinations of both. Transcription methods can be subdivided intophonemictranscription,which records thephonemesor units ofsemanticmeaning in speech, and more strictphonetic transcription,which records speech sounds with precision.
Methods
[edit]There are many consistent orstandardizedromanization systems. They can be classified by their characteristics. A particular system's characteristics may make it better-suited for various, sometimes contradictory applications, including document retrieval, linguistic analysis, easy readability, faithful representation of pronunciation.
- Source, or donor language – A system may be tailored to romanize text from a particular language, or a series of languages, or for any language in a particular writing system. A language-specific system typically preserves language features like pronunciation, while the general one may be better for cataloguing international texts.
- Target, or receiver language – Most systems are intended for an audience that speaks or reads a particular language. (So-calledinternationalromanization systems for Cyrillic text are based on central-European alphabets like theCzechandCroatian alphabet.)
- Simplicity – Since the basicLatin alphabethas a smaller number of letters than many other writing systems,digraphs,diacritics,or special characters must be used to represent them all in Latin script. This affects the ease of creation, digital storage and transmission, reproduction, and reading of the romanized text.
- Reversibility – Whether or not the original can be restored from the converted text. Some reversible systems allow for an irreversible simplified version.
Transliteration
[edit]If the romanization attempts to transliterate the original script, the guiding principle is a one-to-one mapping of characters in the source language into the target script, with less emphasis on how the result sounds when pronounced according to the reader's language. For example, theNihon-shikiromanization ofJapaneseallows the informed reader to reconstruct the original Japanesekanasyllables with 100% accuracy, but requires additional knowledge for correct pronunciation.
Transcription
[edit]Phonemic
[edit]Most romanizations are intended to enable the casual reader who is unfamiliar with the original script to pronounce the source language reasonably accurately. Such romanizations follow the principle ofphonemic transcriptionand attempt to render the significant sounds (phonemes) of the original as faithfully as possible in the target language. The popularHepburn Romanizationof Japanese is an example of a transcriptive romanization designed for English speakers.
Phonetic
[edit]Aphoneticconversion goes one step further and attempts to depict allphonesin the source language, sacrificing legibility if necessary by using characters or conventions not found in the target script. In practice such a representation almost never tries to representeverypossible allophone—especially those that occur naturally due tocoarticulationeffects—and instead limits itself to the most significant allophonic distinctions. TheInternational Phonetic Alphabetis the most common system of phonetic transcription.
Trade
[edit]For most language pairs, building a usable romanization involves trade between the two extremes. Pure transcriptions are generally not possible, as the source language usually contains sounds and distinctions not found in the target language, but which must be shown for the romanized form to be comprehensible. Furthermore, due todiachronicandsynchronicvariance nowritten languagerepresents anyspoken languagewith perfect accuracy and the vocal interpretation of ascriptmay vary by a great degree among languages. In modern times the chain of transcription is usually spoken foreign language, written foreign language, written native language, spoken (read) native language. Reducing the number of those processes, i.e. removing one or both steps of writing, usually leads to more accurate oral articulations. In general, outside a limited audience of scholars, romanizations tend to lean more towards transcription. As an example, consider the Japanese martial art nhu thuật: the Nihon-shiki romanizationzyûzyutumay allow someone who knows Japanese to reconstruct the kana syllablesじゅうじゅつ,but most native English speakers, or rather readers, would find it easier to guess the pronunciation from the Hepburn version,jūjutsu.
Romanization of specific writing systems
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Arabic
[edit]TheArabic alphabetis used to writeArabic,Persian,Urdu,PashtoandSindhias well as numerous other languages in the Muslim world, particularlyAfricanandAsianlanguages without alphabets of their own. Romanization standards include the following:
- Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft(1936): Adopted by the International Convention of Orientalist Scholars in Rome. It is the basis for the very influentialHans Wehr dictionary(ISBN0-87950-003-4).[1]
- BS 4280(1968): Developed by theBritish Standards Institution[2]
- SATTS(1970s): A one-for-one substitution system, a legacy from theMorse codeera
- UNGEGN(1972)[3]
- DIN 31635(1982): Developed by theDeutsches Institut für Normung(German Institute for Standardization)
- ISO 233(1984). Transliteration.
- Qalam(1985): A system that focuses upon preserving the spelling, rather than the pronunciation, and uses mixed case[4]
- ISO 233-2(1993): Simplified transliteration.
- Buckwalter transliteration(1990s): Developed atXeroxbyTim Buckwalter;[5]does not require unusualdiacritics[6]
- ALA-LC(1997)[7]
- Arabic chat alphabet
Persian
[edit]Unicode | Persian letter |
IPA | DMG (1969) | ALA-LC (1997) | BGN/PCGN (1958) | EI (1960) | EI (2012) | UN (1967) | UN (2012) | Pronunciation |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
U+0627 | ا | ʔ,∅[a] | ʾ, —[b] | ʼ, —[b] | ʾ | - as in uh-oh | ||||
U+0628 | ب | b | b | B as in Bob | ||||||
U+067E | پ | p | p | P as in pet | ||||||
U+062A | ت | t | t | T as in tall | ||||||
U+062B | ث | s | s̱ | s̱ | s̄ | t͟h | ṯ | s̄ | s | S as in sand |
U+062C | ج | dʒ | ǧ | j | j | d͟j | j | j | J as in jam | |
U+0686 | چ | tʃ | č | ch | ch | č | ch | č | Ch as in Charlie | |
U+062D | ح | h | ḥ | ḥ | ḩ/ḥ[c] | ḥ | ḩ | h | H as in holiday | |
U+062E | خ | x | ḫ | kh | kh | k͟h | ḵ | kh | x | somewhat resembling German Ch |
U+062F | د | d | d | D as in Dave | ||||||
U+0630 | ذ | z | ẕ | ẕ | z̄ | d͟h | ḏ | z̄ | z | Z as in zero |
U+0631 | ر | r | r | R as in rabbit | ||||||
U+0632 | ز | z | z | Z as in zero | ||||||
U+0698 | ژ | ʒ | ž | zh | zh | z͟h | ž | zh | ž | S as in television
or G as in genre |
U+0633 | س | s | s | S as in Sam | ||||||
U+0634 | ش | ʃ | š | sh | sh | s͟h | š | sh | š | Sh as in sheep |
U+0635 | ص | s | ṣ | ṣ | ş/ṣ[c] | ṣ | ş | s | S as in Sam | |
U+0636 | ض | z | ż | z̤ | ẕ | ḍ | ż | ẕ | z | Z as in zero |
U+0637 | ط | t | ṭ | ṭ | ţ/ṭ[c] | ṭ | ţ | t | t as in tank | |
U+0638 | ظ | z | ẓ | ẓ | z̧/ẓ[c] | ẓ | ẓ | z̧ | z | Z as in zero |
U+0639 | ع | ʕ | ʿ | ʻ | ʼ[b] | ʻ | ʻ | ʿ | ʿ | _____ |
U+063A | غ | ɢ~ɣ | ġ | gh | gh | g͟h | ḡ | gh | q | somewhat resembling French R |
U+0641 | ف | f | f | F as in Fred | ||||||
U+0642 | ق | ɢ~ɣ | q | ḳ | q | somewhat resembling French R | ||||
U+06A9 | ک | k | k | C as in card | ||||||
U+06AF | گ | ɡ | g | G as in go | ||||||
U+0644 | ل | l | l | L as in lamp | ||||||
U+0645 | م | m | m | M as in Michael | ||||||
U+0646 | ن | n | n | N as in name | ||||||
U+0648 | و | v~w[a][d] | v | v, w[e] | v | V as in vision | ||||
U+0647 | ه | h[a] | h | h | h[f] | h | h[f] | h[f] | H as in hot | |
U+0629 | ة | ∅,t | — | h[g] | — | t[h] | h[g] | — | — | |
U+06CC | ی | j[a] | y | Y as in Yale | ||||||
U+0621 | ء | ʔ,∅ | ʾ | ʼ | ʾ | |||||
U+0623 | أ | ʔ,∅ | ʾ | ʼ | ʾ | |||||
U+0624 | ؤ | ʔ,∅ | ʾ | ʼ | ʾ | |||||
U+0626 | ئ | ʔ,∅ | ʾ | ʼ | ʾ |
Unicode | Final | Medial | Initial | Isolated | IPA | DMG (1969) | ALA-LC (1997) | BGN/PCGN (1958) | EI (2012) | UN (1967) | UN (2012) | Pronunciation |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
U+064E | ـَ | ـَ | اَ | اَ | æ | a | a | a | a | a | a | A as in cat |
U+064F | ـُ | ـُ | اُ | اُ | o | o | o | o | u | o | o | O as in go |
U+0648 U+064F | ـوَ | ـوَ | — | — | o[j] | o | o | o | u | o | o | O as in go |
U+0650 | ـِ | ـِ | اِ | اِ | e | e | i | e | e | e | e | E as in ten |
U+064E U+0627 | ـَا | ـَا | آ | آ | ɑː~ɒː | ā | ā | ā | ā | ā | ā | O as in hot |
U+0622 | ـآ | ـآ | آ | آ | ɑː~ɒː | ā, ʾā[k] | ā, ʼā[k] | ā | ā | ā | ā | O as in hot |
U+064E U+06CC | ـَی | — | — | — | ɑː~ɒː | ā | á | á | ā | á | ā | O as in hot |
U+06CC U+0670 | ـیٰ | — | — | — | ɑː~ɒː | ā | á | á | ā | ā | ā | O as in hot |
U+064F U+0648 | ـُو | ـُو | اُو | اُو | uː,oː[e] | ū | ū | ū | u, ō[e] | ū | u | U as in actual |
U+0650 U+06CC | ـِی | ـِیـ | اِیـ | اِی | iː,eː[e] | ī | ī | ī | i, ē[e] | ī | i | Y as in happy |
U+064E U+0648 | ـَو | ـَو | اَو | اَو | ow~aw[e] | au | aw | ow | ow, aw[e] | ow | ow | O as in go |
U+064E U+06CC | ـَی | ـَیـ | اَیـ | اَی | ej~aj[e] | ai | ay | ey | ey, ay[e] | ey | ey | Ay as in play |
U+064E U+06CC | ـیِ | — | — | — | –e,–je | –e, –ye | –i, –yi | –e, –ye | –e, –ye | –e, –ye | –e, –ye | Ye as in yes |
U+06C0 | ـهٔ | — | — | — | –je | –ye | –ʼi | –ye | –ye | –ye | –ye | Ye as in yes |
Notes:
- ^abcdUsed as a vowel as well.
- ^abcHamza and ayn are not transliterated at the beginning of words.
- ^abcdThe dot below may be used instead of cedilla.
- ^At the beginning of words the combination⟨خو⟩was pronounced/xw/or/xʷ/in Classical Persian. In modern varieties the glide/ʷ/has been lost, though the spelling has not been changed. It may be still heard in Dari as a relict pronunciation. The combination/xʷa/was changed to/xo/(see below).
- ^abcdefghiIn Dari.
- ^abcNot transliterated at the end of words.
- ^abIn the combination⟨یة⟩at the end of words.
- ^When used instead of⟨ت⟩at the end of words.
- ^Diacritical signs (harakat) are rarely written.
- ^After⟨خ⟩from the earlier/xʷa/.Often transliterated asxwaorxva.For example,خور/xor/"sun" was/xʷar/in Classical Persian.
- ^abAfter vowels.
Armenian
[edit]![]() | This sectionneeds expansion.You can help byadding to it.(June 2015) |
Georgian
[edit]![]() | This sectionneeds expansion.You can help byadding to it.(June 2015) |
Georgian letter | IPA | National system (2002) |
BGN/PCGN (1981—2009) |
ISO 9984 (1996) |
ALA-LC (1997) |
Unofficial system | Kartvelo translit | NGR2 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ა | /ɑ/ | a | a | a | a | a | a | a |
ბ | /b/ | b | b | b | b | b | b | b |
გ | /ɡ/ | g | g | g | g | g | g | g |
დ | /d/ | d | d | d | d | d | d | d |
ე | /ɛ/ | e | e | e | e | e | e | e |
ვ | /v/ | v | v | v | v | v | v | v |
ზ | /z/ | z | z | z | z | z | z | z |
ჱ[a] | /eɪ/ | ey | ē | ē | é | ej | ẽ | |
თ | /tʰ/ | t | tʼ | t̕ | tʻ | T[b]or t | t | t / t̊ |
ი | /i/ | i | i | i | i | i | i | i |
კ | /kʼ/ | kʼ | k | k | k | k | ǩ | k̉ |
ლ | /l/ | l | l | l | l | l | l | l |
მ | /m/ | m | m | m | m | m | m | m |
ნ | /n/ | n | n | n | n | n | n | n |
ჲ[a] | /i/,/j/ | j | y | y | j | ĩ | ||
ო | /ɔ/ | o | o | o | o | o | o | o |
პ | /pʼ/ | pʼ | p | p | p | p | p̌ | p̉ |
ჟ | /ʒ/ | zh | zh | ž | ž | J,[b]zh or j | ž | g̃ |
რ | /r/ | r | r | r | r | r | r | r |
ს | /s/ | s | s | s | s | s | s | s |
ტ | /tʼ/ | tʼ | t | t | t | t | t̆ | t̉ |
ჳ[a] | /w/ | w | w | ŭ | f̃ | |||
უ | /u/ | u | u | u | u | u | u | u |
ფ | /pʰ/ | p | pʼ | p̕ | pʻ | p or f | p | p / p̊ |
ქ | /kʰ/ | k | kʼ | k̕ | kʻ | q or k | q or k | k / k̊ |
ღ | /ʁ/ | gh | gh | ḡ | ġ | g, gh or R[b] | g, gh or R[b] | q̃ |
ყ | /qʼ/ | qʼ | q | q | q | y[c] | q | q |
შ | /ʃ/ | sh | sh | š | š | sh or S[b] | š | x |
ჩ | /t͡ʃ(ʰ)/ | ch | chʼ | č̕ | čʻ | ch or C[b] | č | c̃ |
ც | /t͡s(ʰ)/ | ts | tsʼ | c̕ | cʻ | c or ts | c | c |
ძ | /d͡z/ | dz | dz | j | ż | dz or Z[b] | ʒ | d̃ |
წ | /t͡sʼ/ | tsʼ | ts | c | c | w, c or ts | ʃ | c̉ |
ჭ | /t͡ʃʼ/ | chʼ | ch | č | č | W,[b]ch or tch | ʃ̌ | j̉ |
ხ | /χ/ | kh | kh | x | x | x or kh (rarely) | x | k̃ |
ჴ[a] | /q/,/qʰ/ | qʼ | ẖ | x̣ | q̌ | q̊ | ||
ჯ | /d͡ʒ/ | j | j | ǰ | j | j | - | j |
ჰ | /h/ | h | h | h | h | h | h | h |
ჵ[a] | /oː/ | ō | ō | ȯ | h̃ |
Notes:
Greek
[edit]There are romanization systems for bothModernandAncient Greek.
Hebrew
[edit]TheHebrew alphabetis romanized using several standards:
- ANSIZ39.25 (1975)
- UNGEGN(1977)[11]
- ISO 259(1984): Transliteration.
- ISO 259-2(1994): Simplified transliteration.
- ISO/DIS 259-3: Phonemic transcription.
- ALA-LC[12]
Indic (Brahmic) scripts
[edit]TheBrahmic familyofabugidasis used for languages of the Indian subcontinent and south-east Asia. There is a long tradition in the west to studySanskritand other Indic texts in Latin transliteration. Various transliteration conventions have been used for Indic scripts since the time of Sir William Jones.[13]
- ISO 15919(2001): A standardtransliterationconvention was codified in the ISO 15919 standard. It usesdiacriticsto map the much larger set of Brahmicconsonantsandvowelsto the Latin script. The Devanagari-specific portion is very similar to the academic standard,IAST:"International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration", and to the United States Library of Congress standard,ALA-LC,[14]although there are a few differences
- TheNational Library at Kolkata romanization,intended for the romanization of allIndic scripts,is an extension ofIAST
- Harvard-Kyoto:Uses upper and lower case and doubling of letters, to avoid the use of diacritics, and to restrict the range to 7-bit ASCII.
- ITRANS:a transliteration scheme into 7-bit ASCII created byAvinash Chopdethat used to be prevalent onUsenet.
- ISCII(1988)
Devanagari–nastaʿlīq (Hindustani)
[edit]Hindustaniis anIndo-Aryan languagewith extremedigraphiaanddiglossiaresulting from theHindi–Urdu controversystarting in the 1800s. Technically, Hindustani itself is recognized by neither the language community nor any governments. Twostandardizedregisters,Standard HindiandStandard Urdu,are recognized asofficial languagesin India and Pakistan. However, in practice the situation is,
- In Pakistan: Standard (Saaf or Khaalis) Urdu is the "high" variety, whereas Hindustani is the "low" variety used by the masses (called Urdu, written innastaʿlīq script).
- In India, both Standard (Shuddh) Hindi and Standard (Saaf or Khaalis) Urdu are the "H" varieties (written indevanagariand nastaʿlīq respectively), whereas Hindustani is the "L" variety used by the masses and written in either devanagari or nastaʿlīq (and called 'Hindi' or 'Urdu' respectively).
The digraphia renders any work in either script largely inaccessible to users of the other script, though otherwise Hindustani is a perfectly mutually intelligible language, essentially meaning that any kind of text-basedopen sourcecollaboration is impossible among devanagari and nastaʿlīq readers.
Initiated in 2011, the Hamari Boli Initiative[15]is a full-scale open-sourcelanguage planninginitiative aimed at Hindustani script, style, status & lexical reform and modernization. One of primary stated objectives of Hamari Boli is to relieve Hindustani of the crippling devanagari–nastaʿlīq digraphia by way of romanization.[16]
Chinese
[edit]Romanization of theSinitic languages,particularlyMandarin,has proved a very difficult problem, although the issue is further complicated by political considerations. Because of this, many romanization tables contain Chinese characters plus one or more romanizations orZhuyin.
Mandarin
[edit]- ALA-LC:Used to be similar to Wade–Giles,[17]but converted toHanyu Pinyinin 2000[18]
- EFEO.Developed byÉcole française d'Extrême-Orientin the 19th century, used mainly in France.
- Latinxua Sin Wenz(1926): Omitted tone sounds. Used mainly in theSoviet UnionandXinjiangin the 1930s. Predecessor ofHanyu Pinyin.
- Lessing-Othmer:Used mainly in Germany.
- Postal romanization(1906): Early standard for international addresses
- Wade–Giles(1892): Transliteration. Very popular from the 19th century until recently and continues to be used by some Western academics.
- Yale(1942): Created by the U.S. for battlefield communication and used in the influential Yale textbooks.
- Legge romanization:Created byJames Legge,a Scottish missionary.
Mainland China
[edit]- Hanyu Pinyin(1958): Inmainland China,Hanyu Pinyin has been used officially to romanizeMandarinfor decades, primarily as a linguistic tool for teaching the standardized language. The system is also used in other Chinese-speaking areas such asSingaporeand parts ofTaiwan,and has been adopted by much of the international community as a standard for writing Chinese words and names in the Latin script. The value of Hanyu Pinyin in education in China lies in the fact that China, like any other populated area with comparable area and population, has numerous distinctdialects,though there is just one common written language and one common standardized spoken form. (These comments apply to romanization in general)
- ISO 7098(1991): Based on Hanyu Pinyin.
Taiwan
[edit]- Gwoyeu Romatzyh(GR, 1928–1986, in Taiwan 1945–1986; Taiwan used Japanese Romaji before 1945),
- Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II(MPS II, 1986–2002),
- Tongyong Pinyin(2002–2008),[19][20]and
- Hanyu Pinyin(since January 1, 2009).[21][22]
Singapore
[edit]Cantonese
[edit]- Barnett–Chao
- Guangdong(1960)
- Hong Kong Government
- Jyutping
- Macau Government
- Meyer–Wempe
- Sidney Lau
- Yale(1942)
- Cantonese Pinyin
Wu
[edit]Min Nan or Hokkien
[edit]- Pe̍h-ōe-jī(POJ), once thede factoofficial script of thePresbyterian Church in Taiwan(since the late 19th century). Technically this represented a largely phonemic transcription system, asMin Nanwas not commonly written in Chinese.
- Tâi-uân Lô-má-jī Phing-im Hong-àn
Teochew
[edit]Min Dong
[edit]Min Bei
[edit]Japanese
[edit]Romanization (or, more generally,Roman letters) is called "rōmaji"inJapanese.The most common systems are:
- Hepburn(1867): phonetic transcription to Anglo-American practices, used in geographical names
- Nihon-shiki(1885): transliteration. Also adopted as (ISO 3602 Strict) in 1989.
- Kunrei-shiki(1937): phonemic transcription. Also adopted as (ISO 3602).
- JSL(1987): phonemic transcription. Named after the bookJapanese: The Spoken Languageby Eleanor Jorden.
- ALA-LC:Similar to Modified Hepburn[23]
- Wāpuro:( "word processor romanization" ) transliteration. Not strictly a system, but a collection of common practices that enables input of Japanese text.
Korean
[edit]While romanization has taken various and at times seemingly unstructured forms, some sets of rules do exist:
- McCune–Reischauer(MR; 1937?), the first transcription to gain some acceptance. A slightly changed version of MR was the official system forKoreaninSouth Koreafrom 1984 to 2000, and yet a different modification is still the official system inNorth Korea.Usesbreves,apostrophesanddiereses,the latter two indicating orthographic syllable boundaries in cases that would otherwise be ambiguous.
What is called MR may in many cases be any of a number of systems that differ from each other and from the original MR mostly in whether word endings are separated from the stem by a space, a hyphen or – according to McCune's and Reischauer's system – not at all; and if a hyphen or space is used, whether sound change is reflected in a stem's last and an ending's first consonant letter (e.g.pur-ivs.pul-i). Although mostly irrelevant when transcribing uninflected words, these aberrations are so widespread that any mention of "McCune-Reischauer romanization" may not necessarily refer to the original system as published in the 1930s.- There is, for example, theALA-LC/ U.S. Library of Congress system, based on MR but with some deviations. Word division is addressed in detail, with a generous use of spaces to separate word endings from stems that is not seen in MR. Syllables of given names are always separated with a hyphen, which is expressly never done by MR. Sound changes are ignored more often than in MR. Distinguishes between‘and’.[24]
Several problems with MR led to the development of the newer systems:
- Yale(1942): This system has become the established standard romanization for Korean amonglinguists.Vowel length in old or dialectal pronunciation is indicated by amacron.In cases that would otherwise be ambiguous, orthographic syllable boundaries are indicated with a period. This system also indicates consonants that have disappeared from a word'sSouth Korean orthographyand standard pronunciation.
- Revised Romanization of Korean(RR; 2000): Includes rules both for transcription and for transliteration. South Korea now officially uses this system that was approved in 2000. Road signs and textbooks were required to follow these rules as soon as possible, at a cost estimated by the government to be at least US$20 million. All road signs, names of railway and subway stations on line maps and signs etc. have been changed. The change has been either ignored orgrandfatheredin some cases, notably the romanization of names and existing companies. RR is generally similar to MR, but uses no diacritics or apostrophes, and uses distinct letters for ㅌ/ㄷ (t/d), ㅋ/ㄱ (k/g), ㅊ/ㅈ (ch/j) and ㅍ/ㅂ (p/b). In cases of ambiguity, orthographic syllable boundaries were intended to be indicated with ahyphen,but this is inconsistently applied in practice.
- ISO/TR 11941(1996): This actually is two different standards under one name: one for North Korea (DPRK) and the other for South Korea (ROK). The initial submission to the ISO was based heavily on Yale and was a joint effort between both states, but they could not agree on the final draft.[25]
- Lukoffromanization, developed 1945–47 for hisSpoken Koreancoursebooks[26]
Thai
[edit]Thai,spoken inThailandand some areas of Laos, Burma and China, is written withits own script,probably descended from mixture of Tai–Laotian andOld Khmer,in theBrahmic family.
- Royal Thai General System of Transcription
- ISO 119401998 Transliteration
- ISO 11940-22007 Transcription
- ALA-LC[27]
Nuosu
[edit]TheNuosu language,spoken in southern China, is written with its own script, theYi script.The only existing romanisation system isYYPY(Yi Yu Pin Yin), which represents tone with letters attached to the end of syllables, as Nuosu forbids codas. It does not use diacritics, and as such due to the large phonemic inventory of Nuosu, it requires frequent use of digraphs, including for monophthong vowels.
Tibetan
[edit]TheTibetan scripthas two official romanization systems:Tibetan Pinyin(forLhasa Tibetan) andRoman Dzongkha(forDzongkha).
Cyrillic
[edit]In English language library catalogues, bibliographies, and most academic publications, theLibrary of Congress transliteration methodis used worldwide.
In linguistics,scientific transliterationis used for bothCyrillicandGlagolitic alphabets.This applies toOld Church Slavonic,as well as modernSlavic languagesthat use these alphabets.
Belarusian
[edit]- BGN/PCGN romanization of Belarusian,1979 (United States Board on Geographic NamesandPermanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use)
- Scientific transliteration,or theInternational Scholarly Systemforlinguistics
- ALA-LC romanization,1997 (American Library Association and Library of Congress):[28]
- ISO 9:1995
- Instruction on transliteration of Belarusian geographical names with letters of Latin script,2000
Bulgarian
[edit]A system based onscientific transliterationandISO/R 9:1968was considered official in Bulgaria since the 1970s. Since the late 1990s, Bulgarian authorities have switched to the so-calledStreamlined Systemavoiding the use of diacritics and optimized for compatibility with English. This system became mandatory for public use with a law passed in 2009.[29]Where the old system uses <č,š,ž,št,c,j,ă>, the new system uses <ch,sh,zh,sht,ts,y,a>.
The new Bulgarian system was endorsed for official use also by UN in 2012,[30]and byBGNandPCGNin 2013.[31]
Kyrgyz
[edit]![]() | This section is empty.You can help byadding to it.(June 2015) |
Macedonian
[edit]![]() | This section is empty.You can help byadding to it.(June 2015) |
Russian
[edit]There is no single universally accepted system of writingRussianusing the Latin script—in fact there are a huge number of such systems: some are adjusted for a particular target language (e.g. German or French), some are designed as a librarian's transliteration, some are prescribed for Russian travellers' passports; the transcription of some names is purely traditional. All this has resulted in great reduplication of names. E.g. the name of the Russian composerTchaikovskymay also be written asTchaykovsky,Tchajkovskij,Tchaikowski,Tschaikowski,Czajkowski,Čajkovskij,Čajkovski,Chajkovskij,Çaykovski,Chaykovsky,Chaykovskiy,Chaikovski,Tshaikovski,Tšaikovski,Tsjajkovskijetc. Systems include:
- BGN/PCGN(1947): Transliteration system (United States Board on Geographic Names & Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use).[32]
- GOST 16876-71(1971): A now defunct Soviet transliteration standard. Replaced by GOST 7.79, which is anISO 9equivalent.
- United Nationsromanization system for geographical names (1987): Based onGOST 16876-71.
- ISO 9(1995): Transliteration. From theInternational Organization for Standardization.
- ALA-LC(1997)[33]
- "Volapuk" encoding (1990s): Slang term (it is not reallyVolapük) for a writing method that is not truly a transliteration, but used for similar goals (see article).
- Conventional English transliteration is based to BGN/PCGN, but does not follow a particular standard. Described in detail atRomanization of Russian.
- Streamlined System[34][35][36][37][38]for the romanization of Russian.
- Comparative transliteration of Russian[39]in different languages (Western European, Arabic, Georgian, Braille, Morse)
Syriac
[edit]The Latin script for Syriac was developed in the 1930s, following the state policy for minority languages of theSoviet Union,with some material published.[40]
Ukrainian
[edit]The 2010 Ukrainian National system has been adopted by the UNGEGN in 2012 and by the BGN/PCGN in 2020. It is also very close to the modified (simplified) ALA-LC system, which has remained unchanged since 1941.
- ALA-LC[41]
- ISO 9
- Ukrainian National transliteration[42]
- Ukrainian National and BGN/PCGN systems, at the UN Working Group on Romanization Systems[43]
- Thomas T. Pedersen's comparison of five systems[44]
Overview and summary
[edit]The chart below shows the most common phonemic transcription romanization used for several different alphabets. While it is sufficient for many casual users, there are multiple alternatives used for each alphabet, and many exceptions. For details, consult each of the language sections above. (Hangul characters are broken down intojamocomponents.)
Romanized | IPA | Greek | Cyrillic | Amazigh | Hebrew | Arabic | Persian | Katakana | Hangul | Bopomofo |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
A | a | A | А | ⴰ | ַ, ֲ, ָ | َ, ا | ا, آ | ア | ㅏ | ㄚ |
AE | ai̯/ɛ | ΑΙ | ㅐ | |||||||
AI | ai | י ַ | ㄞ | |||||||
B | b | ΜΠ, Β | Б | ⴱ | בּ | ﺏ ﺑ ﺒ ﺐ | ﺏ ﺑ | ㅂ | ㄅ | |
C | k/s | Ξ | ㄘ | |||||||
CH | ʧ | TΣ̈ | Ч | צ׳ | چ | ㅊ | ㄔ | |||
CHI | ʨi | チ | ||||||||
D | d | ΝΤ, Δ | Д | ⴷ, ⴹ | ד | ﺩ — ﺪ, ﺽ ﺿ ﻀ ﺾ | د | ㄷ | ㄉ | |
DH | ð | Δ | דֿ | ﺫ — ﺬ | ||||||
DZ | ʣ | ΤΖ | Ѕ | |||||||
E | e/ɛ | Ε, ΑΙ | Э | ⴻ | ,ֱ, י ֵֶ, ֵ, י ֶ | エ | ㅔ | ㄟ | ||
EO | ʌ | ㅓ | ||||||||
EU | ɯ | ㅡ | ||||||||
F | f | Φ | Ф | ⴼ | פ (or its final form ף ) | ﻑ ﻓ ﻔ ﻒ | ﻑ | ㄈ | ||
FU | ɸɯ | フ | ||||||||
G | ɡ | ΓΓ, ΓΚ, Γ | Г | ⴳ, ⴳⵯ | ג | گ | ㄱ | ㄍ | ||
GH | ɣ | Γ | Ғ | ⵖ | גֿ, עֿ | ﻍ ﻏ ﻐ ﻎ | ق غ | |||
H | h | Η | Һ | ⵀ, ⵃ | ח, ה | ﻩ ﻫ ﻬ ﻪ, ﺡ ﺣ ﺤ ﺢ | ه ح ﻫ | ㅎ | ㄏ | |
HA | ha | ハ | ||||||||
HE | he | ヘ | ||||||||
HI | hi | ヒ | ||||||||
HO | ho | ホ | ||||||||
I | i/ɪ | Η, Ι, Υ, ΕΙ, ΟΙ | И, І | ⵉ | ִ, י ִ | دِ | イ | ㅣ | ㄧ | |
IY | ij | دِي | ||||||||
J | ʤ | TZ̈ | ДЖ, Џ | ⵊ | ג׳ | ﺝ ﺟ ﺠ ﺞ | ج | ㅈ | ㄐ | |
JJ | ʦ͈/ʨ͈ | ㅉ | ||||||||
K | k | Κ | К | ⴽ, ⴽⵯ | כּ | ﻙ ﻛ ﻜ ﻚ | ک | ㅋ | ㄎ | |
KA | ka | カ | ||||||||
KE | ke | ケ | ||||||||
KH | x | X | Х | ⵅ | כ, חֿ (or its final form ך ) | ﺥ ﺧ ﺨ ﺦ | خ | |||
KI | ki | キ | ||||||||
KK | k͈ | ㄲ | ||||||||
KO | ko | コ | ||||||||
KU | kɯ | ク | ||||||||
L | l | Λ | Л | ⵍ | ל | ﻝ ﻟ ﻠ ﻞ | ل | ㄹ | ㄌ | |
M | m | Μ | М | ⵎ | מ (or its final form ם ) | ﻡ ﻣ ﻤ ﻢ | م | ㅁ | ㄇ | |
MA | ma | マ | ||||||||
ME | me | メ | ||||||||
MI | mi | ミ | ||||||||
MO | mo | モ | ||||||||
MU | mɯ | ム | ||||||||
N | n | Ν | Н | ⵏ | נ (or its final form ן ) | ﻥ ﻧ ﻨ ﻦ | ن | ン | ㄴ | ㄋ |
NA | na | ナ | ||||||||
NE | ne | ネ | ||||||||
NG | ŋ | ㅇ | ||||||||
NI | ɲi | ニ | ||||||||
NO | no | ノ | ||||||||
NU | nɯ | ヌ | ||||||||
O | o | Ο, Ω | О | ,ֳ, וֹֹ | ُا | オ | ㅗ | |||
OE | ø | ㅚ | ||||||||
P | p | Π | П | פּ | پ | ㅍ | ㄆ | |||
PP | p͈ | ㅃ | ||||||||
PS | ps | Ψ | ||||||||
Q | q | Θ | ⵇ | ק | ﻕ ﻗ ﻘ ﻖ | غ ق | ㄑ | |||
R | r | Ρ | Р | ⵔ, ⵕ | ר | ﺭ — ﺮ | ر | ㄹ | ㄖ | |
RA | ɾa | ラ | ||||||||
RE | ɾe | レ | ||||||||
RI | ɾi | リ | ||||||||
RO | ɾo | ロ | ||||||||
RU | ɾɯ | ル | ||||||||
S | s | Σ | С | ⵙ, ⵚ | ס, שׂ | ﺱ ﺳ ﺴ ﺲ, ﺹ ﺻ ﺼ ﺺ | س ث ص | ㅅ | ㄙ | |
SA | sa | サ | ||||||||
SE | se | セ | ||||||||
SH | ʃ | Σ̈ | Ш | ⵛ | שׁ | ﺵ ﺷ ﺸ ﺶ | ش | ㄕ | ||
SHCH | ʃʧ | Щ | ||||||||
SHI | ɕi | シ | ||||||||
SO | so | ソ | ||||||||
SS | s͈ | ㅆ | ||||||||
SU | sɯ | ス | ||||||||
T | t | Τ | Т | ⵜ, ⵟ | ט, תּ, ת | ﺕ ﺗ ﺘ ﺖ, ﻁ ﻃ ﻄ ﻂ | ت ط | ㅌ | ㄊ | |
TA | ta | タ | ||||||||
TE | te | テ | ||||||||
TH | θ | Θ | תֿ | ﺙ ﺛ ﺜ ﺚ | ||||||
TO | to | ト | ||||||||
TS | ʦ | ΤΣ | Ц | צ (or its final form ץ ) | ||||||
TSU | ʦɯ | ツ | ||||||||
TT | t͈ | ㄸ | ||||||||
U | u | ΟΥ, Υ | У | ⵓ | ,וֻּ | دُ | ウ | ㅜ | ㄩ | |
UI | ɰi | ㅢ | ||||||||
UW | uw | دُو | ||||||||
V | v | B | В | ב | و | |||||
W | w | Ω | ⵡ | ו, וו | ﻭ — ﻮ | |||||
WA | wa | ワ | ㅘ | |||||||
WAE | wɛ | ㅙ | ||||||||
WE | we | ヱ | ㅞ | |||||||
WI | y/ɥi | ヰ | ㅟ | |||||||
WO | wo | ヲ | ㅝ | |||||||
X | x/ks | Ξ, Χ | ㄒ | |||||||
Y | j | Υ, Ι, ΓΙ | Й, Ы, Ј | ⵢ | י | ﻱ ﻳ ﻴ ﻲ | ی | |||
YA | ja | Я | ヤ | ㅑ | ||||||
YAE | jɛ | ㅒ | ||||||||
YE | je | Е, Є | ㅖ | |||||||
YEO | jʌ | ㅕ | ||||||||
YI | ji | Ї | ||||||||
YO | jo | Ё | ヨ | ㅛ | ||||||
YU | ju | Ю | ユ | ㅠ | ||||||
Z | z | Ζ | З | ⵣ, ⵥ | ז | ﺯ — ﺰ, ﻅ ﻇ ﻈ ﻆ | ز ظ ذ ض | ㄗ | ||
ZH | ʐ/ʒ | Ζ̈ | Ж | ז׳ | ژ | ㄓ |
See also
[edit]- Anglicisation
- Cyrillization,expression of a language in Cyrillic letters
- Francization
- Gairaigo
- Transcription into Chinese,though standards vary by polity.
- Sinicization,specificallyadoption of Chinese literary culture
- Latinisation of names
- Semitic romanization
- Spread of the Latin script
References
[edit]- ^"Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft".Dmg-web.de.Retrieved2015-07-02.
- ^"Standards, Training, Testing, Assessment and Certification".BSI-Global.com.BSI Group.Retrieved2013-04-25.
- ^"Arabic"(PDF).Eki.ee.Retrieved2015-07-02.
- ^"Qalam: A Convention for Morphological Arabic-Latin-Arabic Transliteration".EServer.org.Archived fromthe original(TXT)on 2009-02-08.Retrieved2015-07-02.
- ^"Buckwalter Arabic Transliteration".Qamus.org.Retrieved2013-04-25.
- ^Beesley, Ken (2010-11-22)."The Buckwalter Transliteration".Xerox Research Centre Europe.Archived fromthe originalon 2002-04-24.Retrieved2013-04-25.
- ^"Arabic"(PDF).Library of Congress.Retrieved2015-07-02.
- ^"Greek"(PDF).Library of Congress.Retrieved2015-07-02.
- ^"The TLG®Beta Code Manual 2004 "(PDF).Thesaurus Linguae Graecae.University of California, Irvine.June 23, 2004. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on January 29, 2006.
- ^Lefort, Francois; Roubelakis-Angelakis, Kalliopi A."Transliteration scheme ISO 843".biology.uoc.gr.University of Crete.Archived fromthe originalon December 10, 2004.
- ^"Hebrew"(PDF).Eki.ee.Retrieved2015-07-02.
- ^"Hebrew and Yiddish"(PDF).Library of Congress.Retrieved2015-07-02.
- ^Gabriel Pradīpaka."Sanskrit 3: comparing transliteration systems".Sanskrit-Sanscrito.com.ar.Archived fromthe originalon 2004-03-15.Retrieved2013-04-25.
- ^"Hindi"(PDF).Library of Congress.Retrieved2015-07-02.
- ^"What is HamariBoli?".HamariBoli.2011-06-15. Archived fromthe originalon 2013-06-01.Retrieved2013-04-25.
- ^The News International- Dec 29, 2011ArchivedJune 16, 2013, at theWayback Machine– "Hamari Boli (our language) is perhaps one of the very first serious undertakings to explore, develop and encourage the growth of Roman script in the use of Urdu/Hindi language."
- ^"Chinese"(PDF).Library of Congress.Retrieved2015-07-02.
- ^"New Chinese Romanization Guidelines".Library of Congress.1998-11-03.Retrieved2013-04-25.
- ^"Tongyong Pinyin the new system for romanization".Taipei Times.2002-07-11.
- ^"Taiwan Authority Concerned Passes Tongyong Pinyin Scheme".People's Daily Online.2002-07-12.
- ^"Hanyu Pinyin to be standard system in 2009".Taipei Times.2008-09-18.
- ^"Gov't to improve English-friendly environment".The China Post.2008-09-18. Archived fromthe originalon 2008-09-19.
- ^"Japanese"(PDF).Library of Congress.Retrieved2014-09-28.
- ^"Korean"(PDF).Library of Congress.Retrieved2015-07-02.
- ^"A superficial comparison between the two".Sori.org.Retrieved2013-04-25.
- ^"Korean Romanization Reference".Glossika.com.Archived fromthe originalon February 14, 2006.
- ^"Thai"(PDF).Library of Congress.Retrieved2015-07-02.
- ^"Belarusian"(PDF).Library of Congress.Retrieved2015-07-02.
- ^State Gazette # 19, Sofia, 13 March 2009. (in Bulgarian)
- ^"UN Romanization of Bulgarian for Geographical Names (1977)".Eki.ee.Retrieved2015-06-27.
- ^"Romanization System for Bulgarian, BGN/PCGN 1952 System"(PDF).earth-info.nga.mil.National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.Archived fromthe original(PDF)on December 19, 2007.
- ^"Cyrillic Translations".DSpace.Dial.Pipex.com.Archived fromthe originalon 2012-07-16.Retrieved2013-04-25.
- ^"Russian"(PDF).Library of Congress.Retrieved2015-07-02.
- ^Dimiter Dobrev."Транслитерация"[Transliteration].Metodii.com(in Russian).Retrieved2013-04-25.
- ^BasicandOptimizedArchived2016-04-12 at theWayback MachineRomanization of Russian. 2006–2016.
- ^L. Ivanov."Streamlined Romanization of Russian Cyrillic".Contrastive Linguistics.XLII (2017) No. 2. pp. 66-73.ISSN0204-8701
- ^Interscript.Streamlined Romanization of Russian Cyrillic (Basic Streamlined System).
- ^Interscript.Streamlined Romanization of Russian Cyrillic (Optimized Streamlined System).
- ^"Транслитерация русского алфавита"[Transliteration of the Russian alphabet].Russki-mat.net(in Russian).Retrieved2013-04-25.
- ^S.P. Brock, "Three Thousand Years of Aramaic literature", in Aram,1:1 (1989)
- ^"Ukrainian"(PDF).Library of Congress.Retrieved2015-07-02.
- ^"Додаток до рішення № 9".hostmaster.net.ua.Archived fromthe originalon March 7, 2005.
- ^"Ukrainian"(PDF).Eki.ee.Retrieved2015-07-02.
- ^"Ukrainian"(PDF).Transliteration.Eki.ee.Retrieved2015-07-02.
External links
[edit]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- About romanization
- IPA for Urdu and Roman Urdu for Mobile and Internet Users (Download)Archived2008-12-23 at theWayback Machine
- Microsoft Transliteration Utility– A tool for creating, debugging and using transliteration modules from any script to any other script.
- Randall Barry (ed.)ALA-LC Romanization TablesU.S. Library of Congress, 1997,ISBN0-8444-0940-5.(One of the few printed books with lists of romanizations)
- U.S. Library of Congress Romanization Tablesin PDF format
- UNGEGN Working Group on Romanization Systems
- Unicode Transliteration GuidelinesArchived2009-03-28 at theWayback Machine
- Romanization online
- Chinese Phonetic Conversion Tool– Converts between Pinyin and other formats
- Cyrillic Transliteration and Transcription ONLINE (Cyrillic -> Latin)
- eiktubArchived2019-10-25 at theWayback Machine– An Arabic Transliteration Pad
- Lingua::Translit–Perlmodule covering a variety of writing systems e.g. Cyrillic or Greek. Provides a lot of standards as well as common transliteration schemes.
- Arabeasy– Arabic Transliteration (free chrome extension exists, also works for Persian, Urdu)
- RussianeasyArchived2016-03-08 at theWayback Machine– Russian Transliteration (free chrome extension exists)
For Persian Romanization
For Cantonese Romanization