Wikipedia:Naming conventions (Cyrillic)

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This page documents the current usage of names in the Cyrillic alphabet, and transliteration of those names in Wikipedia. This is not a recommendation. Discuss proposed recommendations at Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (Cyrillic).

Languages covered: Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Mongolian, Russian, Serbian, Ukrainian.

There are many more languages which use the Cyrillic alphabet.

Contents

[edit] Current policies

[edit] Usage

  1. If a name or word has a conventional English spelling, that is used (see #Conventional names, below)
  2. In linguistics topics, scholarly transliteration is used
  3. Otherwise, the conventional transliteration method for a language is used (see below)
  4. Generally, Cyrillic is provided only where transliteration alone cannot convey the original spelling. Since many of the conventional systems are non-deterministic, this means that very often both the Cyrillic and transliteration are provided in a word's first occurrence in an article.

[edit] Belarusian

  1. Where there exists an established English spelling, the established English spelling is to be used.
  2. Otherwise, the BGN/PCGN for Belarusian language system (1979) is to be used.
  3. The renderings of the Belarusian geographical names in the intra-national Instruction on transliteration of Belarusian geographical names with letters of Latin script may be additionally included, if sufficiently different from the BGN/PCGN version. The suggested form of writing it down, in absence of template would be: ...(BelarusianGeoNameBGNed, IOT2000: BelarusianGeoNameIOT2000ed)...
  4. Other systems and orthographies, e.g., ISO 9, GOST 1983 and derivatives, Lacinka are not to be used.

[edit] Bulgarian

  1. The Official Bulgarian method is preferred.

[edit] Macedonian

  1. May be written as Serbian, with
    1. dz for ѕ
    2. ć for ќ
    3. đ for ѓ.

... as well as:

    1. ḱ for ќ
    2. ǵ for ѓ.

[It seems that the first version is often used because of common cultural space during the existence of Socialist Yugoslavia. The second version is identical to the ALA/LC transliteration.]

[edit] Mongolian

  1. Mongolian is transliterated using a modified BGN/PCGN system; details at Wikipedia:Naming conventions (Mongolian).

[edit] Russian

  1. Russian is transliterated using a modified BGN/PCGN system; details at Wikipedia:Romanization of Russian.

[edit] Serbian

  1. Latin spelling is used

[edit] Ukrainian

Modern political entities

  1. Article titles and names in article bodies are transcribed using the simplified official National system; details at Wikipedia:Romanization of Ukrainian.
  2. In articles' nomenclature lines, the full official National system is used

Other proper names

  1. Article titles and proper names in article bodies are transcribed using a conventional method, similar to the Russian (above)
    • ye, ya, yu are used where they define syllables
    • ie, ia, iu are used where only palatalization is indicated
    • doubled letters remain doubled
    • [-ій and -ий endings?]

All other words

  1. Ukrainian in articles' nomenclature lines and regular words in article bodies are transliterated using a more disciplined method
    • ь becomes an apostrophe (’)
    • the apostrof (’) becomes a double apostrophe (”)
    • [-ій and -ий endings?]
See also a note on Unicode characters disignated for the transliteration of Cyrillic soft and hard signs.

[edit] Other languages

See also Romanization of Kyrgyz.

[edit] Conventional names

When something has a conventional name in English, use that name instead of transliterating. Conventionally-used names may stem from various sources:

  • They may be anglicized versions, e.g., Aleksandr→Alexander, Iosif→Joseph, Moskva→Moscow.
  • They may be transliterated by a different system, or for another language, e.g., Rossiya→Rossija, Rus→Rus’, Chaykovskiy→Tchaikovsky.
  • They may be simplified, more familiar-looking, or easier to pronounce for English-speakers, e.g., Gorbachyov→Gorbachev, Kray→Krai, Khrushchyov→Khruschev, Yuriy→Yuri.
  • They may be names borrowed from Russian through another language, e.g., Petergof→Peterhof.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

  • Style Sheet for Authors of the Slavic and East European Journal—an example guideline for transliteration, translation, and naming
  • Linguistics Style Sheet of Ohio State University Slavic Studies (PDF)—Scientific transliteration for various languages is shown in a table on p. 4.