Transliteration

Transliteration in a narrow sense is a mapping from one system of writing into another. Transliteration attempts to be lossless, so that an informed reader should be able to reconstruct the original spelling of unknown transliterated words. To achieve this objective transliteration may define complex conventions for dealing with letters in a source script which do not correspond with letters in a goal script. Romaji is an example of a transliterating method.

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.

Related Topics:
Greek language - Greek alphabet - Roman alphabet - English - Roman letters

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Transliteration in the broader sense is a necessary process when using words or concepts expressed in a language with a script other than one's own.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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 not interchangeable, as "Mohammedan" has come to be viewed as a religious slur, and the typical French usage "Musulman" is considered offensively colonialist in English language contexts. However, "Musulmaan" is the way to say "Muslim" in other languages, such as Urdu, Hindi and Russian.

Related Topics:
Muhammad - Muslim - French - English language - Urdu - Hindi - Russian

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Transliteration is also used for simple encryption.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~