Transliteration is the practice of transcribing a word or text written in one writing system into another writing system. It is also the system of rules for that practice. A practice refers to a way that something is done. ... 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. ... A word is a unit of language that carries meaning and consists of one or more morphemes which are linked more or less tightly together, and has a phonetical value. ... Writing is the process of inscribing characters on a medium, with the intention of forming words and other larger language constructs. ... Writing systems of the world today. ... System (from Latin systēma, in turn from Greek sustēma) is a set of entities, real or abstract, comprising a whole where each component interacts with or is related to at least one other component. ... Rule has several meanings: A rule in mathematics is something which is always true. ...

Technically, from a linguistic point of view, it is a mapping from one system of writing into another. Transliteration attempts to be exact, 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. Broadly conceived, linguistics is the study of human language, and a linguist is someone who engages in this study. ... The word mapping has several senses: In mathematics and related technical fields, it is some kind of function: see map (mathematics). ... Writing systems of the world today. ... A convention is a set of agreed, stipulated or generally accepted rules, norms, standards or criteria, often taking the form of a custom. ... 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. ...

This is opposed to transcription, which maps the sounds of one language to the script of another language. Still, most transliterations map the letters of the source script to letters pronounced similarly in the goal script, for some specific pair of source and goal language. Transcription is the conversion into written, typewritten or printed form, of a spoken language source, such as the proceedings of a court hearing. ... Look up phone in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

It is not to be confused with translation, which involves a change in language while preserving meaning. Here we have a mapping from one alphabet into another. Look up translate in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ...

One instance of transliteration is the use of an English computer keyboard to type in a language that uses a different alphabet, such as in Russian. While the first usage of the word implies seeking the best way to render foreign words into a particular language, the typing transliteration is a purely pragmatic process of inputting text in a particular language. Transliteration from English letters is particularly important for users who are only familiar with the English keyboard layout, and hence could not type quickly in a different alphabet even if their software actually supported a keyboard layout for another language. Some programs, such as the Russian language word processor Hieroglyph provide typing by transliteration as an important feature. The rest of the article concerns itself with the first meaning of the word, that is rendering foreign words into a different alphabet. It has been suggested that IBM PC keyboard be merged into this article or section. ... Russian ( , tr. ... A word processor (also more formally known as a document preparation system) is a computer application used for the production (including composition, editing, formatting, and possibly printing) of any sort of viewable or printed material. ... Hieroglyph is a freeware Russian language word processor written by Michael Morozov. ...

Transliterated text, often used in emails, blogs, and electronic correspondence where non-Latin keyboards are unavailable, is sometimes referred to by special composite terms that demonstrate the combination of English characters and the original non-Latin word pronounciation: Ruglish, Hebrish, Greeklish, or Arabish. Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... 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. ...

If the relations between letters and sounds are similar in both languages, a transliteration may be (almost) the same as a transcription. In practice, there are also some mixed transliteration/transcription systems that transliterate a part of the original script and transcribe the rest. Greeklish is an example of such a mixture. 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. ...

In a broader sense, the word transliteration is used to include both transliteration in the narrow sense and transcription. Anglicizing is a transcription method. Romanization encompasses several transliteration and transcription methods. Transcription is the conversion into written, typewritten or printed form, of a spoken language source, such as the proceedings of a court hearing. ... Anglicisation is a process of making something English. ... In linguistics, romanization (or Latinization, also spelled romanisation or Latinisation) is the representation of a word or language with the Roman (Latin) alphabet, or a system for doing so, where the original word or language uses a different writing system. ...

Example to illustrate the difference between transliteration and transcription

In Modern Greek, the letters <η> <ι> <υ> and the letter combinations <ει> <oι> <υι> are all pronounced [i] (in IPA notation). A transcription consequently renders them all as <i>, but a transliteration still distinguishes them, for example by transliterating to <ē> <i> <y> and <ei> <oi> <yi>. (As the old Greek pronunciation of <η> was [ɛː], this proposal uses the character appropriate for an Old Greek transliteration or transcription <ē>, an <e> with a macron.) 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. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words see here. ... A macron, from Greek (makros) meaning large, is a diacritic ¯ placed over a vowel originally to indicate that the vowel is long. ...

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). This article is about the ancient syllabary. ...

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. Greek (, IPA: — Hellenic) has a documented history of 3,500 years, the longest of any single language within the Indo-European family. ... Because of technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ... The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. ...

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"). For other persons named Muhammad, see Muhammad (name). ... A Muslim (Arabic: مسلم, Turkish: Müslüman, Persian and Urdu: مسلمان, Bosnian: Musliman) is an adherent of Islam. ...

Transliteration is also used for simple encryption. // In cryptography, encryption is the process of obscuring information to make it unreadable without special knowledge. ...

Issues in transliterating particular languages

Some languages and scripts present particular difficulties to transcribers. These are discussed on separate pages.

• Ancient Near East
  • Transliterating cuneiform languages
  • Transliteration of ancient Egyptian (see also Egyptian hieroglyphs)
  • hieroglyphic Luwian
• Avestan
• Brahmic family
  • Devanagari: see Devanagari transliteration
  • Pali
  • Tocharian
  • Malayalam: see Romanization of Malayalam
• Chinese language
  • Romanisation
  • transliteration into Chinese characters
• Greek language
  • Transliteration of Greek to the Latin Alphabet
  • Greek alphabet
  • List of Greek words with English derivatives
  • Linear B
  • Greeklish
• Japanese language
  • Romaji Transliterating Japanese to Latin script
  • Transcribing English to Japanese
  • Cyrillization of Japanese
• Korean language
  • McCune-Reischauer
  • Revised Romanization of Korean
• Semitic languages
  • Ugaritic alphabet
  • Hebrew alphabet
    • Romanization of Hebrew
  • Arabic alphabet
    • Romanization of Arabic
    • Arabic Chat Alphabet
• Slavic languages written in the Cyrillic or Glagolitic alphabets
  • Romanization of Belarusian
  • Romanization of Bulgarian
  • Romanization of Russian
  • Romanization of Ukrainian
  • Volapuk encoding
• Thai language
  • Royal Thai General System of Transcription

Overview map of the Ancient Near East The term Ancient Near East or Ancient Orient encompasses the early civilizations predating Classical Antiquity in the region roughly corresponding to that described by the modern term Middle East (Egypt, Iraq, Turkey), during the time roughly spanning the Bronze Age from the rise... In the study of languages written in cuneiform, transliteration is the process of representing the sounds of written cuneiform signs in a lossless way, as opposed to transcription, which is a lossy method of representing the spoken language. ... In the field of Egyptology, transliteration is the process of converting (or mapping) texts written in the Egyptian language to alphabetic symbols representing uniliteral hieroglyphs or their hieratic and demotic counterparts. ... It has been suggested that Hieroglyph (French Wiki article) be merged into this article or section. ... Luwian (sometimes spelled Luwiyan) is an Anatolian language known in three forms: (1) Cuneiform Luwian, (2) Hieroglyphic-Luwian and (3), the somewhat later Lycian. ... Yasna 28. ... The Brahmic family is a family of abugidas (writing systems) used in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Tibet, Mongolia, Manchuria. ... Rigveda manuscript in Devanagari (early 19th century) DevanāgarÄ« (देवनागरी — in English pronounced ) (ISCII – IS13194:1991) [1] is an abugida alphabet used to write several Indian languages, including Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi, Kashmiri, Sindhi, Bihari, Bhili, Konkani, Bhojpuri and Nepali from Nepal. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Devanagari. ... Pāli is a Middle Indo-Aryan dialect or prakrit. ... Tocharian refers to an Indo-European culture that inhabited the Tarim basin in what is now Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, northwestern Peoples Republic of China. ... Malayalam ( ) is the language spoken predominantly in the state of Kerala, in southern India. ... Malayalam has a number of Romanization schemes, the most widely used today being the Mozhi. ... Chinese (written) language (pinyin: zh&#333;ngw n) written in Chinese characters The Chinese language (&#27721;&#35821;/&#28450;&#35486;, &#21326;&#35821;/&#33775;&#35486;, or &#20013;&#25991;; Pinyin: H ny&#468;, Hu y&#468;, or Zh&#333;ngw n) is a member of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. ... Chinese (written) language (pinyin: zh&#333;ngw n) written in Chinese characters The Chinese language (&#27721;&#35821;/&#28450;&#35486;, &#21326;&#35821;/&#33775;&#35486;, or &#20013;&#25991;; Pinyin: H ny&#468;, Hu y&#468;, or Zh&#333;ngw n) is a member of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. ... When considering the transliteration of non-Chinese words into Chinese characters, one has to know the following facts: Chinese is written with monosyllabic logograms. ... Greek (, IPA: — Hellenic) has a documented history of 3,500 years, the longest of any single language within the Indo-European family. ... This table lists several transcription schemes from the Greek alphabet to the Latin alphabet. ... Because of technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ... This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it. ... This article is about the ancient syllabary. ... 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. ... Japanese (,  ) is a language spoken by over 130 million people, mainly in Japan, but also by Japanese emigrant communities around the world. ... Japanese writing Kanji &#28450;&#23383; Kana &#20206;&#21517; Hiragana &#24179;&#20206;&#21517; Katakana &#29255;&#20206;&#21517; Uses Furigana &#25391;&#12426;&#20206;&#21517; Okurigana &#36865;&#12426;&#20206;&#21517; Romaji &#12525;&#12540;&#12510;&#23383; The title given to this article lacks diacritics because of certain technical limitations. ... The transcription of English to Japanese has been done since the earliest cultural contacts between English speakers and Japanese. ... Cyrillization of Japanese is converting Japanese sounds into Cyrillic characters. ... Korean (, see below) is the official language of both North and South Korea. ... McCune-Reischauer romanization is one of the two most widely used Korean language romanization systems, along with the Revised Romanization of Korean, which replaced (a modified) McCune-Reischauer as the official romanization system in South Korea in 2000. ... The Revised Romanization of Korean (Korean: 국어의 로마자 표기법; 國語의 로마字 表記法) is the official Korean language romanization system in South Korea. ... 14th century BC diplomatic letter in Akkadian, found in Tell Amarna. ... The Ugaritic alphabet is a cuneiform version of the Levantine consonant alphabet (abjad), used from around 1300 BC for the Ugaritic language, an extinct Canaanite language discovered in Ugarit, Syria. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... Hebrew uses the Hebrew alphabet with optional vowel points. ... The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing Arabic and various other languages, together with various closely related scripts that typically differ in the presence or absence of a few letters. ... 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, due to various conflicting goals. ... The Arabic Chat Alphabet is used to communicate in the Arabic language over the Internet or for sending messages via cellular phones when the actual Arabic alphabet is unavailable for technical reasons. ... The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages) comprise the languages of the Slavic peoples. ... The Cyrillic alphabet (pronounced , also called azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters) is an alphabet used for several East and South Slavic languages—Belarusian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Rusyn, 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. ... Romanisation or Latinisation of Belarusian is any system for transliterating written Belarusian from the Cyrillic alphabet to the Latin. ... Romanization of Bulgarian is the transliteration of text in the Bulgarian language from the Cyrillic alphabet into the Latin alphabet. ... There exist many possible systems for transliterating the Cyrillic alphabet of the Russian language to English or the Latin alphabet. ... Romanization or Latinization of Ukrainian denotes a system for representing the Ukrainian language in Latin letters. ... 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. ... The Thai language (Thai: , transcription: phasa thai; IPA: ), is the national and official language of Thailand and the mother tongue of the Thai people, Thailands dominant ethnic group. ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...

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