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Transliteration is the practice of converting a text from one writing system into another in a systematic way. An example of transliteration is typing an e-mail using a qwerty keyboard and sending it in a non-qwerty script[1].
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From an information-theoretical point of view, transliteration is a mapping from one system of writing into another, word by word, or ideally letter by letter. Transliteration attempts to use a one-to-one correspondence and 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.
Transliteration is opposed to transcription, which specifically maps the sounds of one language to the best matching script of another language. Still, most systems of transliteration map the letters of the source script to letters pronounced similarly in the goal script, for some specific pair of source and goal language. 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.
One instance of transliteration is the use of an English computer keyboard to type in a language that uses a different alphabet, such as Russian. Transliterated texts are often used in emails, blogs, and electronic correspondence where non-Latin keyboards are unavailable [2]. It is sometimes referred to by special composite terms that demonstrate the combination of English characters and the original non-Latin word pronunciation: Runglish, Hebrish, Greeklish, or Arabish. While the transcription 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. The rest of this article concerns itself with the first meaning of the word, that is, rendering foreign words into a different alphabet, transliteration in a narrow sense.
Also, transliteration should not be confused with translation, which involves converting a message expressed in one language into a message with the same meaning in another language. Transliteration performs a mapping from one alphabet into another.
In a broader sense, the word transliteration may be used to include both transliteration in the narrow sense and transcription. Anglicizing is a transcription method. Romanization encompasses several transliteration and transcription methods.
Among the interpreters between a spoken language and a signed language, like between English and American Sign Language (ASL), the word transliteration means transforming the spoken form of the source language into the signed form of the same, generally called signed English. Each spoken word is given a sign of the sign language that conveys the meaning of the word. The signs are signed in the same order as spoken. Sometimes morphemic components of a word are signed morpheme by morpheme or only the stem morpheme is signed and some of other minor morphemes are left unsigned. Sometimes a two-word idiom, like the English 'make up' in the meaning of "invent" is signed with two ASL signs MAKE UP or by a single sign INVENT. The use of the manual alphabet is also used in this process whenever an English word does not have a signed equivalent.
Transliterations 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.[1]
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.
Transliteration should be distinguished from transcription, which is a rendition of a word in a given script, based on the word's sound rather than as a process of converting of one script into another.
In Modern Greek usage (and since the Roman Imperial period), the letters <η> <ι> <υ> and the letter combinations <ει> <oι> <υι> may be pronounced [i]. When so pronounced, a modern transcription 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 original Greek pronunciation of <η> is believed to have been [ɛː], the following example uses the character appropriate for an ancient 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.
| Greek word | Transliteration | Transcription |
|---|---|---|
| Ελληνική Δημοκρατία | Hellēnikē Dēmokratia | Helliniki Dhimokratia |
| Ελευθερία | Eleutheria | Eleftheria |
| Ευαγγέλιο | Euaggelio | Evangelio |
| των υιών | tōn uiōn | ton ion |
There is also another type of transliteration that is not full, but partial or quasi. A source word can be transliterated by first identifying all the applicable prefix and suffix segments based on the letters in the source word. All of these segments, in combination constitute a list of potential partial transliterations. So a partial transliteration can include only prefix or only suffix segments. A partial transliteration will also include some unmapped letters of the source word, namely those letters between the end of the prefix and the beginning of the suffix. The partial transliteration can be “filled in” by applying additional segment maps. Applying the segment maps can produce additional transliterations if more than one segment mapping applies to a particular combination of characters in the source word.[3]
Some examples or "partial transliterations" are words like "bishop" from the Greek word "episkopoi" and the word "deacon" which is partially transliterated from the Greek word "diakonos".
Some languages and scripts present particular difficulties to transcribers. These are discussed on separate pages.