In linguistics, romanization or latinization is a system for representing a word or language with the Roman (Latin) alphabet, where the original word or language used a different writing system. Methods of romanization include transliteration, representing written text, and transcription, representing the spoken word. The latter can be subdivided into phonological transcription, which records the phonemes or units of semantic meaning in speech, and more strict phonetic transcription, which records speech sounds with precision. Each romanization has its own set of rules for pronunciation of the romanized words. Broadly conceived, linguistics is the scientific study of human language, and a linguist is someone who engages in this study. ... Word can mean one of several things: A linguistic word—a unit of language that symbolizes or communicates a meaning, consisting of one or more morphemes. ... The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world. ... A writing system, also called a script, is a type of symbolic communication system used to represent elements or statements expressible in some spoken language, for the purpose of communication. ... Transliteration in a narrow sense is a mapping from one system of writing into another. ... Transcription is the conversion into written, typewritten or printed form, of a written source - such as the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica articles of which are transcribed into the Wikipedia - or spoken language source, such as the proceedings of a court hearing. ... Phonology (Greek phone = voice/sound and logos = word/speech) is a subfield of grammar (see also linguistics). ... In spoken language, a phoneme is a basic, theoretical unit of sound that can distinguish words (i. ... In general, semantics (from the Greek semantikos, or significant meaning, derived from sema, sign) is the study of meaning, in some sense of that term. ... Phonetic (pho-NET-ic) is a nationwide voicemail-to-text messaging service available for most digital mobile phones in which a subscriber is provided a custom voice mailbox for the purpose of receiving all incoming voice messages as actual transcribed text for reading via short messaging (also known as SMS...

To romanize is to transliterate or transcribe a language into the Roman alphabet. This process is most commonly associated with the Chinese, Japanese and Korean languages (CJK). Cyrillization is the similar process of representing a language using the Cyrillic alphabet. CJK is a collective term for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, which comprise the largest of East Asian languages. ... A Cyrillization is a system for representing a language with the Cyrillic alphabet, where the source language use a writing system other than the Cyrillic alphabet (compare this to Romanization). ... The Cyrillic alphabet (or azbuka, from the old name of the first letters) is an alphabet used to write six natural Slavic languages (Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Serbian, and Ukrainian) and many other languages of the former Soviet Union, Asia and Eastern Europe. ...

Also spelled romanisation and latinisation.

Methods of romanization

Transliteration

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, the Nihon-shiki romanization of Japanese allows the informed reader to reconstruct the original Japanese kana syllables with 100% accuracy, but is not readable without prior study. Transliteration in a narrow sense is a mapping from one system of writing into another. ... Nihon-shiki or Nippon-shiki (日本式 Japan-style; romanized as Nihon-siki or Nippon-siki in Nippon-shiki itself) is a romanization system for transcribing the Japanese language into the Roman alphabet. ... Japanese writing Kanji 漢字 Kana 仮名 Hiragana 平仮名 Katakana 片仮名 Uses Furigana 振り仮名 Okurigana 送り仮名 Romaji ローマ字 For other meanings of Kana, see Kana (disambiguation). ...

Transcription

Phonological

However, most romanizations are intended for the casual reader, who is unfamiliar with the intricacies of the original script and is more interested in pronouncing the source language. Such romanizations follow the principle of phonological transcription and attempt to render the significant sounds (phonemes) of the original as faithfully as possible in the target language. The popular Hepburn romanization of Japanese is an example of a transcriptive romanization designed for English speakers. Phonology (Greek phone = voice/sound and logos = word/speech) is a subfield of grammar (see also linguistics). ... Transcription may be one of the following: In linguistics, transcription is the conversion of spoken words into written language. ... In spoken language, a phoneme is a basic, theoretical unit of sound that can distinguish words (i. ... Japanese writing Kanji 漢字 Kana 仮名 Hiragana 平仮名 Katakana 片仮名 Uses Furigana 振り仮名 Okurigana 送り仮名 Romaji ローマ字 For other meanings, see Hepburn (disambiguation). ...

Phonetic

A phonetic conversion goes one step further and attempts to depict all phones in the source language, sacrificing legibility if necessary by using characters or conventions not found in the target script. The International Phonetic Alphabet is the most common system of phonetic transcription. Phonetic (pho-NET-ic) is a nationwide voicemail-to-text messaging service available for most digital mobile phones in which a subscriber is provided a custom voice mailbox for the purpose of receiving all incoming voice messages as actual transcribed text for reading via short messaging (also known as SMS... In phonetics and phonology, a phone is a speech sound considered as a physical event without regard to its place in the sound system semantics of a language. ... The International Phonetic Alphabet. ...

Tradeoffs

For most language pairs, building a usable romanization involves tradeoffs 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 to for the romanized form to be comprehensible.

In general, outside a limited audience of scholars, romanizations tend to lean more towards transcription. As an example, consider the Japanese martial art 柔術: the Nihon-shiki romanization zyūzyutu may allow someone who knows Japanese to reconstruct the kana syllables じゅうじゅつ, but most people would find it easier to guess the pronunciation from the Hepburn version, jūjutsu. Jujutsu (also jujitsu, ju jitsu, ju jutsu, or jiu jitsu; from the Japanese 柔術 jÅ«jutsu gentle/yielding/compliant Art) is a Japanese martial art. ...

Romanization of specific writing systems

Arabic

For more detail, see Arabic transliteration Due to the fact that the Arabic language has a number of phonemes that have no equivalent in English or other European languages, a number of different transliteration methods have been invented to represent certain Arabic characters. ...

The Arabic alphabet is used to write Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. Romanization standards include: The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing the Arabic language. ... Arabic (العربية) is a Semitic language, closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic. ... Persian (فارسی/پارسی), (local name in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan: Fârsi), Pârsi (older local name, but still used by some speakers), Tajik (a Central Asian dialect) or Dari (another local name in Tajikistan and Afghanistan), is a language spoken in Iran (Persia), Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Bahrain. ... Urdu (اردو) is an Indo-European language which originated in India, most likely in the vicinity of Delhi, whence it spread to the rest of the subcontinent. ...

• Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft (1936): [1] Adopted by the International Convention of Orientalist Scholars in Rome. Is the basis for the very influential Hans Wehr dictionary (ISBN 0879500034)
• BS 4280 (1968): Developed by the British Standards Institute [2]
• SATTS (1970s): Developed by US military
• UNGEGN (1972): [3]
• DIN-31635 (1982): Developed by the Deutsches 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 at Xerox by Tim Buckwalter [5]; doesn't require unusual diacritics [6]
• ALA-LC (1997): [7]

British Standards is the new name of the British Standards Institute and is part of BSI Group which also includes a testing organisation. ... SATTS is the Standard Arabic Technical Transliteration System, a US military standard for the mapping of Arabic letters to the Latin alphabet. ... United Nations Statistical Commission or United Nations Statistical Office or UNSCO (also known as the Statistics Division) is a Functional Commission of the UN Economic and Social Council. ... DIN 31635 is a DIN standard for the transliteration of the Arabic language. ... Deutsches Institut für Normung (DIN, the German Institute for Standardization) is a German national organization for standardization. ... The international standard ISO 233 establishes a system for the transliteration into Latin characters of Arabic characters. ... This is about the tool known as a qalam. ... Xerox Corporation (NYSE: XRX) is the worlds largest supplier of toner-based (dry ink) photocopier machines and associated supplies. ... A diacritical mark or diacritic, sometimes called an accent mark, is a mark added to a letter to alter a words pronunciation or to distinguish between similar words. ... Library of Congress, Jefferson building The Library of Congress is the unofficial national library of the United States. ...

Hebrew

For more details, see Hebrew alphabet and Romanization of Hebrew. Note: This article contains special characters. ... For more details, see Hebrew alphabet and Romanization#Hebrew. ...

• ANSI Z39.25 (1975):
• UNGEGN (1977): [8]
• ISO 259 (1984): Transliteration.
• ISO 259-2 (1994): Simplified transliteration.
• ISO/DIS 259-3: Phonemic transcription.
• ALA-LC: [9]

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is a private, non-profit standards organization that produces industrial standards in the United States. ... United Nations Statistical Commission or United Nations Statistical Office or UNSCO (also known as the Statistics Division) is a Functional Commission of the UN Economic and Social Council. ... Library of Congress, Jefferson building The Library of Congress is the unofficial national library of the United States. ...

Brahmic scripts

The Brahmic family of abugidas is used for languages of the Indian subcontinent and south-east Asia. There is a long tradition in the west to study Sanskrit and other Indic texts in Latin transliteration. Various transliteration conventions have been used for Indic scripts since the time of Sir William Jones. A comparison of some of them is provided here: [10] The Brahmic family is a family of abugidas used in South Asia and Southeast Asia. ... An alphasyllabary or abugida is a writing system whose basic signs denote consonants with an inherent vowel and where consistent modifications of the basic sign indicate other following vowels than the inherent one (or, in some cases, the lack of a vowel, for example as the final consonant in a... The Sanskrit language ( संस्कृता वाक्) is one of the earliest attested members of the Indo-European language family and is not only a classical language, but also an official language of India. ...

• ISO 15919 (2001): A standard transliteration convention was codified in the ISO 15919 standard. It uses diacritics to map the much larger set of Brahmic consonants and vowels to the Latin script. See also Transliteration of Indic scripts: how to use ISO 15919. The Devanagari-specific portion is identical to the academic standard, IAST: "International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration", and to the United States Library of Congress standard, ALA-LC: [11]
• 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 by Avinash Chopde that used to be prevalent on Usenet.
• ASTHA: "Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration for HTML", made in Argentina, also into 7-bit ASCII [12]
• ISCII (1988)
• National Library at Calcutta romanization (?)

A romanization or latinization is a system for representing a word or language with the Roman (Latin) alphabet, where the original word or language used a different writing system. ... Transliteration in a narrow sense is a mapping from one system of writing into another. ... A diacritic mark or accent mark is an additional mark added to a basic letter. ... A consonant is a sound in spoken language that is characterized by a closure or stricture sufficient to cause audible turbulence, at one or more points along the vocal tract. ... In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language that is characterized by an open configuration of the vocal tract, in contrast to consonants, which are characterized by a constriction or closure at one or more points along the vocal tract. ... IAST, or International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration is the academic standard for writing the Sanskrit language with the Latin alphabet and very similar to National Library at Calcutta romanization standard being used with many Indic scripts. ... Library of Congress, Jefferson building The Library of Congress is the unofficial national library of the United States. ... The Kyoto-Harvard Convention is a system for transliterating the Sanskrit language in ASCII. It is predominantly used informally in e-mail, and for electronic texts. ... ITRANS (Indian languages TRANSliteration) is an ASCII transliteration scheme for Indic scripts, particularly, but not exclusively, for Devanagari (used for the Sanskrit, Hindi, Nepali, Marathi and other languages). ... Usenet is a distributed Internet discussion system that evolved from a general purpose UUCP network of the same name. ... ISCII (Indian Script Code for Information Interchange) is a coding scheme for representing various Indic scripts. ... The National Library at Calcutta romanization is the most widely used in dictionaries and grammars of Indic languages. ...

Chinese

Romanization of Chinese, in particular, has proved a very difficult problem, although the issue is further complicated by political considerations. Another complication is the fact that Mandarin is not written phonetically, but rather written as ideograms. Because of this, most romanization tables convert not directly from the Chinese characters but from the underlying Zhuyin pronunciation. See also: [13] [14] Zhùyīn Fúhào (注音符號), or Symbols for Annotating Sounds, often abbreviated as Zhuyin, or known as Bopomofo (ㄅㄆㄇㄈ) for the first four syllables of these Chinese phonetic symbols, is the national phonetic system of the Republic of China (based on Taiwan) for teaching the Chinese languages, especially Standard Mandarin, to people...

Standard Mandarin

• ALA-LC: Used to be similar to Wade-Giles [15], but converted to Hanyu Pinyin since 2000 [16]
• EFEO. Developed by Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient in 19th century, used mainly in France.
• Latinxua Sinwenz (1926): Omitted tone sounds. Used mainly in the Soviet Union.
• Lessing-Othmer: Used mainly in Germany.
• Postal System Pinyin (1906): Early standard for international addresses
• Wade-Giles (1912): Transliteration. Very popular before World War II.
• Yale (1942): Created by the U.S. for battlefield communication.

Standard Mandarin is the official Chinese spoken language used by the Peoples Republic of China, the Republic of China on Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore. ... Library of Congress, Jefferson building The Library of Congress is the unofficial national library of the United States. ... Pinyin (拼音, Pīnyīn) literally means join (together) sounds (a less literal translation being phoneticize, spell or transcription) in Chinese and usually refers to Hànyǔ Pīnyīn (汉语拼音, literal meaning: Han language pinyin), which is a system of romanization (phonetic notation and transliteration to roman script) for Standard Mandarin used in the... 2000 is a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Ecole française dExtrême-Orient (EFEO) is a French institute dedicated to the study of Asian societies. ... The École française dExtrême-Orient (EFEO) is a French institute dedicated to the study of Asian societies. ... Latinxua Sinwenz (拉丁化新文字; also known as Sin Wenz, Latinxua Sinwenz, Zhongguo Latinxua Sin Wenz, Beifangxua Latinxua Sin Wenz or Latinxua) is a little-used romanization system for Mandarin Chinese. ... In the early twentieth century, China (starting with the dying Qing Empire) used Postal (Office) System Pinyin (郵政式拼音 Hanyu Pinyin: Yóuzhèngshì Pīnyīn) (unrelated to the modern Hanyu Pinyin), based on Wade-Giles (in particularly, Herbert Giless A Chinese-English Dictionary) for postal purposes, especially for placenames on letters and... Wade-Giles, sometimes abbreviated Wade, is a Romanization (phonetic notation and transliteration) system for the Chinese language based on Mandarin. ... Template:Korean Romanization The Yale Romanizations are four systems created during World War II by the United States for its soldiers. ...

Mainland China

• Hanyu Pinyin (1958): In Mainland China, Hanyu Pinyin has been used officially to romanize Mandarin for decades, primarily as a linguistic tool for teaching Standard Mandarin (the standardized Chinese spoken language) to students whose mother tongue is not Standard Mandarin, and has been adopted by much of the international community as a standard for writing Chinese words and names in the Roman alphabet. 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 literally thousands of distinct dialects, though there is just one common written language and one common standardized spoken form.
• ISO 7098 (1991): Very similar to Hanyu Pinyin.

Pinyin (拼音, Pīnyīn) literally means join (together) sounds (a less literal translation being phoneticize, spell or transcription) in Chinese and usually refers to Hànyǔ Pīnyīn (汉语拼音, literal meaning: Han language pinyin), which is a system of romanization (phonetic notation and transliteration to roman script) for Standard Mandarin used in the... In this map of China, the light-coloured areas represent Mainland China, while yellow coloured area refers to Taiwan. ... This article is on all of the Northern Chinese dialects. ... Standard Mandarin is the official Chinese spoken language used by the Peoples Republic of China, the Republic of China on Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore. ... First language (native language, mother tongue, or vernacular) is the language a person learns first. ... Spoken Chinese The Chinese spoken language(s) comprise(s) many regional variants. ... Pinyin (拼音, pīnyīn) literally means join (together) sounds (a less literal translation being phoneticize, spell or transcription) in Chinese and usually refers to Hànyǔ Pīnyīn (汉语拼音, literal meaning: Han language pinyin), which is a system of romanization (phonetic notation and transliteration to roman script) for Standard Mandarin used in the...

Taiwan (Republic of China)

• Gwoyeu Romatzyh: (1926): Used in mainland China before the communist takeover in 1949. Primarily used in Taiwan. Replaced by MPS II and no longer commonly used.
• Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II (1984): Primarily used in Taiwan. Replaced by Tongyong Pinyin and no longer commonly used.
• Tongyong Pinyin (2000): Primarily used in Taiwan. Literally means "Universal Spell Sound". Very similar to Hanyu Pinyin. Differences between the two are noted here.

Gwoyeu Romatzyh (國語羅馬字 Pinyin: Guóyǔ Luómǎzì), abbreviated GR, is a romanization (formerly used officially in the Republic of China) with complex spelling rules which allow for tonal distinctions (unlike most other Romanizations, which require additional diacritics or numerals). ... In this map of China, the light-coloured areas represent Mainland China, while yellow coloured area refers to Taiwan. ... The Chinese Civil War was a conflict in China between the Kuomintang (The Nationalist Party; The Nationalists; KMT) and the Communist Party of China (CPC). ... 1949 is a common year starting on Saturday. ... Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II (國語注音符號第二式), abbreviated MPS II, is a romanization system formerly used in the Republic of China (Taiwan). ... Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II (國語注音符號第二式), abbreviated MPS II, is a romanization system formerly used in the Republic of China (Taiwan). ... Tongyong Pinyin (通用拼音, literally Universal/General Usage Sound-combining) is the current official romanization of the Chinese language adopted by the national government (although not all local governments) of the Republic of China (on Taiwan) since late 2000, announced by the Mandarin Promotion Council of the Ministry of Education. ...

Standard Cantonese

• Barnett-Chao
• Guangdong (1960)
• Hong Kong Government
• Jyutping
• Meyer-Wempe
• Sidney Lau
• Yale (1942)

Standard Cantonese refers to the most prestigious dialect of Cantonese (Yue), a vernacular variety of spoken Chinese. ... Guangdong Romanization refers to the four romanization schemes published by the Guangdong Provincial Education Department in 1960 for transliterating the Standard Cantonese, Teochew, Hakka, and Hainanese spoken varieties of Chinese. ... Hong Kong Government Cantonese Romanisation (not an official title) is the method of romanisation used in Hong Kong. ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... The Meyer-Wempe romanisation system was developed by two Catholic missionaries in Hong Kong, Bernhard F. Meyer and Theodore F. Wempe, during the 1920s and 1930s. ... Template:Korean Romanization The Yale Romanizations are four systems created during World War II by the United States for its soldiers. ...

Min Nan

• Guangdong (1960)
• Presbyterian Church in Taiwan

Mǐn N n (Chinese: 閩南語), also spelt as Minnan or Min-nan; native name B ; literally means Southern Min or Southern Fujian and refers to the local language/dialect of southern Fujian province, China. ... Guangdong Romanization refers to the four romanization schemes published by the Guangdong Provincial Education Department in 1960 for transliterating the Standard Cantonese, Teochew, Hakka, and Hainanese spoken varieties of Chinese. ... See alternative meanings for other possible definitions. ...

Japanese

Romanization (or, more strictly, Roman letters) in Japanese is called "rōmaji". The most common systems are: The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world. ... Japanese writing Kanji 漢字 Kana 仮名 Hiragana 平仮名 Katakana 片仮名 Uses Furigana 振り仮名 Okurigana 送り仮名 Romaji ローマ字 The title given to this article lacks diacritics because of certain technical limitations. ...

• Hepburn (1867): transcription
• Nihon-shiki (1885): transliteration. Also adopted as (ISO 3602 Strict) in 1989.
• Kunrei-shiki (1937): transliteration. Also adopted as (ISO 3602).
• JSL (1987)
• ALA-LC: Similar to Hepburn [17]
• Wāpuro

Japanese writing Kanji 漢字 Kana 仮名 Hiragana 平仮名 Katakana 片仮名 Uses Furigana 振り仮名 Okurigana 送り仮名 Romaji ローマ字 For other meanings, see Hepburn (disambiguation). ... Nihon-shiki or Nippon-shiki (日本式 Japan-style; romanized as Nihon-siki or Nippon-siki in Nippon-shiki itself) is a romanization system for transcribing the Japanese language into the Roman alphabet. ... Nihon-shiki or Nippon-shiki (日本式 Japan-style; romanized as Nihon-siki or Nippon-siki in Nippon-shiki itself) is a romanization system for transcribing the Japanese language into the Roman alphabet. ... Japanese writing Kanji 漢字 Kana 仮名 Hiragana 平仮名 Katakana 片仮名 Uses Furigana 振り仮名 Okurigana 送り仮名 Romaji ローマ字 Kunrei-shiki (訓令式, Cabinet-ordered system) is a romanization system, that is, a system for transcribing the Japanese language into the Roman alphabet. ... Kunrei-shiki (訓令式, Cabinet-ordered system) is a romanization system, that is, a system for transcribing the Japanese language into the Roman alphabet. ... JSL is a romanization system for transcribing the Japanese language into the Roman alphabet. ... Library of Congress, Jefferson building The Library of Congress is the unofficial national library of the United States. ... Japanese writing Kanji 漢字 Kana 仮名 Hiragana 平仮名 Katakana 片仮名 Uses Furigana 振り仮名 Okurigana 送り仮名 Romaji ローマ字 The title given to this article lacks diacritics because of certain technical limitations. ...

Korean

Main article: Korean romanization There are three commonly used romanization schemes for the Korean Hangul script, namely: Revised Romanization of Korean: official in South Korea since 2000 and quite common on the Internet; McCune-Reischauer: formerly official in South Korea and a variation of which is currently official in North Korea, and common in...

• McCune-Reischauer (1937): Transcription. Until 2002, the official system for Korean in South Korea was this system, which is still used in North Korea.
• Revised Romanization of Korean (2000): As of 2005, South Korea officially uses this system, that was approved in 2000. Road signs and textbooks are required to follow these rules as soon as possible, at a cost estimated by the government to be at least US$20 million. Proper names are still left to personal preference, but the government encourages using the new system.
• Yale (1942): This system is used mainly in academic literature.
• ALA-LC: Follows McCune-Reischauer in most cases [18]
• 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 a joint effort between both countries (and was based heavily on Yale), but they could not agree on the final draft. A comparison between the two is available here: [19]

McCune-Reischauer is one of the two most widely used Korean language romanization systems, along with the Revised Romanization of Korean, which replaced McCune-Reischauer as the official romanization system in South Korea in 2000. ... The Revised Romanization of Korean is the official Korean language romanization system in South Korea. ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2000 is a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Template:Korean Romanization The Yale Romanizations are four systems created during World War II by the United States for its soldiers. ... Library of Congress, Jefferson building The Library of Congress is the unofficial national library of the United States. ...

Thai

Thai, spoken in Thailand, is written with its own script, probably descended from Old Khmer, in the Brahmic family. Also see Thai alphabet. The Brahmic family is a family of abugidas used in South Asia and Southeast Asia. ... The Thai alphabet (ตัวอักษรไทย) is used to write the Thai language (ภาษาไทย) and other minority languages in Thailand. ...

• Royal Thai General System of Transcription:
• ALA-LC: [20]
• ISO 11940 (1998): Transliteration

The Royal Thai General System of Transcription (RTGS) is the official system for rendering Thai in the Latin alphabet. ... Library of Congress, Jefferson building The Library of Congress is the unofficial national library of the United States. ...

Cyrillic

In linguistics, scientific transliteration is used for both Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabets. This applies to Old Church Slavonic, as well as modern Slavic languages which use these alphabets. The Cyrillic alphabet (or azbuka, from the old name of the first letters) is an alphabet used to write six natural Slavic languages (Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Serbian, and Ukrainian) and many other languages of the former Soviet Union, Asia and Eastern Europe. ... Tablet inscribed with the Glagolitic alphabet The Glagolitic alphabet or Glagolitsa is the oldest known Slavonic alphabet. ... Old Church Slavonic (also called Old Church Slavic or Old Bulgarian, incorrectly Old Slavic ) is the first literary Slavic language, developed from the Slavic dialect of Solun (Thessaloniki) by 9th century Byzantine missionaries, Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius. ... The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages), a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia. ...

Belarusian

The Belarusian language has been written with both Cyrillic and Latin scripts. Today the Latin script (Łacinka, or Łacinica) is rarely used, although it has its advocates. Despite the existence of a native Latin alphabet, Belarusian names are usually transcribed similarly to the Russian language. Belarusian (белару́ская мо́ва) is the language of the Belarusian nation. ... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ...

• Belarusian National System of Romanization
• ALA-LC: [21]
• BGN/PCGN
• ISO9

External link: Thomas T. Pederson's chart (PDF). Library of Congress, Jefferson building The Library of Congress is the unofficial national library of the United States. ... The international standard ISO 9 establishes a system for the transliteration into Latin characters of Cyrillic characters constituting the alphabets of Slavic and non-Slavic languages. ...

Russian

There is no single universally accepted system of writing Russian using 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 traveller's passports; the transcription of some names is purely traditional.   All this has resulted in great reduplication of names.   E.g. the name of the great Russian composer Tchaikovsky may also be written as Tchaykovsky, Tchajkovskij, Tchaikowski, Tschaikowski, Czajkowski, Čajkovskij, Čajkovski, Chajkovskij, Chaykovsky, Chaykovskiy, Chaikovski etc. Systems include: The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world, the standard script of the English language and most of the languages of western and central Europe, and of those areas settled by Europeans. ... Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский, sometimes transliterated as Piotr, Anglicised as Peter Ilich), (May 7, 1840 – November 6, 1893 (N.S.); April 25, 1840 – October 25, 1893 (O.S.)) was a Russian composer of the Romantic era. ...

• BGN/PCGN (1947): Transliteration system (United States Board on Geographic Names & Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use). [22]
• GOST 16876-71 (1983): From the Main Administration of Geodesy and Cartography of the former Soviet Union. Russian abbreviation of GOsudarstvenny STandart, "the State Standard". [23]
• United Nations standard (1987): Based on GOST. Used in the Russian Federation and increasingly in international cartographic products.
• ISO 9 (1995): Transliteration. From the International Organization for Standardization.
• ALA-LC (1997): [24]
• "Volapuk" encoding (1990s): Slang term (it's not really Volapük) for a writing method that's not truly a transliteration, but used for similar goals (see article).
• Internal Wikipedia standard (2004): Derived from BGN/PCGN, documented at Transliteration of Russian into English, but essentially congruent with de-facto internet practices.

The United Nations, or UN, is an international organization established in 1945 and now made up of 191 states. ... The international standard ISO 9 establishes a system for the transliteration into Latin characters of Cyrillic characters constituting the alphabets of Slavic and non-Slavic languages. ... Logo of the International Organization for Standardization The International Organization for Standardization (ISO or iso) is an international standard-setting body made up of representatives from national standards bodies. ... Library of Congress, Jefferson building The Library of Congress is the unofficial national library of the United States. ... Volapuk encoding (Russian: кодировка воляпюк (or волапюк, kodirovka volapyuk)) is a slang term for rendering the letters of the Cyrillic alphabet by the Latin ones. ... Volapük edition of Wikipedia This article is about the international auxiliary language. ... There exist many possible systems for transliterating the Cyrillic alphabet of the Russian language to English or the Latin alphabet. ...

Ukrainian

Main article: Romanization of Ukrainian

Ukrainian personal names are usually transcribed phonetically; see the main article section Conventional romanization of proper names. The Ukrainian National system is used for geographic names in Ukraine. Romanization or Latinization of Ukrainian denotes a system for representing the Ukrainian language in Latin letters. ... Romanization or Latinization of Ukrainian denotes a system for representing the Ukrainian language in Latin letters. ...

• ALA-LC: (PDF).
• ISO 9
• Ukrainian National transliteration: (JPEG, in Ukrainian).
• Ukrainian National and BGN/PCGN systems, at the UN Working Group on Romanization Systems: (PDF).
• Thomas T. Pederson's comparison of five systems: (PDF).

Library of Congress, Jefferson building The Library of Congress is the unofficial national library of the United States. ... The international standard ISO 9 establishes a system for the transliteration into Latin characters of Cyrillic characters constituting the alphabets of Slavic and non-Slavic languages. ...

Greek

Greek language includes the modern language spoken in Greece, as well as ancient Polytonic orthography. See also Greeklish. Greek (Greek Ελληνικά, IPA – Hellenic) constitutes its own branch of the Indo-European languages. ... Polytonic orthography for Greek uses a variety of diacritics (πολύ = many + τόνος = accent) to represent aspects of Ancient Greek pronunciation. ... Greeklish, a portmanteau of the words Greek and English, also known as Grenglish or Latinoellinika/Λατινοελληνικά or Frankolevantinika/Φραγκολεβάντικα or ASCII Greek, is Greek language written with the Latin alphabet. ...

• ISO 843 (1997): [25]
• ALA-LC: [26]

The international standard ISO 843 establishes a system for the transliteration into Latin characters of Greek characters. ... Library of Congress, Jefferson building The Library of Congress is the unofficial national library of the United States. ...

Overview/Summary

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 below. (Because the number of Hangul characters are prohibitively large, only the first characters are provided in the following table.)

The Cyrillic alphabet (or azbuka, from the old name of the first letters) is an alphabet used to write six natural Slavic languages (Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Serbian, and Ukrainian) and many other languages of the former Soviet Union, Asia and Eastern Europe. ... Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family spoken by 6 million people mainly in Israel, parts of the Palestinian territories, the United States and by Jewish communities around the world. ... Arabic can mean: From or related to Arabia From or related to the Arabs The Arabic language; see also Arabic grammar The Arabic alphabet, used for expressing the languages of Arabic, Persian, Malay ( Jawi), Kurdish, Panjabi, Pashto, Sindhi and Urdu, among others. ... Japanese writing Kanji 漢字 Kana 仮名 Hiragana 平仮名 Katakana 片仮名 Uses Furigana 振り仮名 Okurigana 送り仮名 Romaji ローマ字 Katakana (片仮名, literally: partial kana) are a Japanese syllabary, one of four Japanese writing systems (the others are hiragana, kanji and rōmaji). ... Hangul (한글) is the native alphabet used to write the Korean language, as opposed to the Hanja system borrowed from China. ...

External links

• UNGEGN Working Group on Romanization Systems
• U.S. Library of Congress Romanization Tables in PDF format
• Java romanization app
• One of the few printed books with lists of romanizations is ALA-LC Romanization Tables, Randall Barry (ed.), U.S. Library of Congress, 1997, ISBN 0844409405.