Cyrillization of Chinese

The Cyrillization of Chinese is effected using the Palladius system for transcribing Chinese characters into the Cyrillic alphabet. It was created by Palladius Kafarov, a Russian sinologist and monk who spent thirty years in China. It is the Russian official standard for transcribing Chinese into Russian.

System

Initials

Note that because the Russian version of the Cyrillic alphabet has no letters for dz or dzh (although ѕ and џ are found in Macedonian and Serbian Cyrillic), the digraphs цз and чж are used respectively.

Finals

Nucleus		a					ə						∅
Coda		∅	i	u	n	ŋ	∅	i	u	n	ŋ	ɻ
Medial	∅	a [a] ㄚ a	ай [ai̯] ai ㄞ ai	ao [au̯] ao ㄠ ao	ань [an] an ㄢ an	ан [aŋ] ang ㄤ ang	э [ɤ] ê/o ㄜ e	эй [ei̯] ei ㄟ ei	оу [ou̯] ou ㄡ ou	энь [ən] ên ㄣ en	эн [əŋ] êng ㄥ eng	эр [aɚ̯] êrh ㄦ er	и/ы [ʅ/ɿ] ih/û -i
	i	я [i̯a] ia ㄧㄚ ia		яо [i̯au̯] iao ㄧㄠ iao	янь [i̯ɛn] ien ㄧㄢ ian	ян [i̯aŋ] iang ㄧㄤ iang	е [i̯e] ieh ㄧㄝ ie		ю [i̯ou̯] iu ㄧㄡ iu	инь [in] in ㄧㄣ in	ин [iŋ] ing ㄧㄥ ing		и [i] i ㄧ i
	u	уа [u̯a] ua ㄨㄚ ua	уай [u̯ai̯] uai ㄨㄞ uai		уaнь [u̯an] uan ㄨㄢ uan	уaн [u̯aŋ] uang ㄨㄤ uang	о [u̯o] o/uo ㄨㄛ uo	уй [u̯ei̯] ui ㄨㄟ ui		унь [u̯ən] un ㄨㄣ un	ун [ʊŋ] ung ㄨㄥ ong		у [u] u ㄨ u
	y				юaнь [y̯ɛn] üan ㄩㄢ üan		юэ [y̯e] üeh ㄩㄝ üe			юнь [yn] ün ㄩㄣ ün	юн [i̯ʊŋ] iung ㄩㄥ iong		юй [y] ü ㄩ ü

Comparison chart

This table establishes correspondence between the Palladius system together with the two Romanization systems most commonly used in English-speaking countries: Pinyin and Wade–Giles.

Exceptions

The names of the cities of Beijing and Nanjing are transcribed as Пеки́н (instead of Бэйцзин) and Нанки́н (instead of Наньцзин), much as Peking and Nanking were still used in English speaking countries until recently. Hong Kong (pinyin: Xianggang) may be both Сянга́н (Xianggang) and Гонко́нг (Hong Kong); the latter is more common.

Syllable hui is transcribed not as хуй but as хуэй (Huizu, Хуэйцзу) or, less often, as хой (Anhui, Аньхой) for aesthetic reasons, since хуй (chuy) is a taboo word for "penis" in Russian and several other Slavic languages.

Older documents contain variants мэн — мын, мэнь — мынь, фэн — фын, фэнь — фынь, пэн — пын, hence Aomen (Macao) is traditionally spelled Аомынь in Russian. Most modern texts contain э, with some exceptions.

Sample

The following is Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR):^[1]

Original

Traditional/Simplified:

人人生而自由﹐在尊嚴和權利上一律平等。他們賦有理性和良心﹐並應以兄弟關係的精神互相對待。／人人生而自由,在尊严和权利上一律平等。他们赋有理性和良心,并应以兄弟关系的精神互相对待。

Pinyin

Rénrén shēng ér zìyóu, zài zūnyán hé quánlì shàng yīlù píngděng. Tāmen fùyǒu lǐxìng hé liángxīn, bìng yīng yǐ xiōngdì guānxì de jīngshén hùxiāng duìdài.

Palladius system

Жэньжэнь шэн эр цзыю, цзай цзуньянь хэ цюаньли шан илу пиндэн. Тамэнь фую лисин хэ лянсинь, бин ин и сюнди гуаньси дэ цзиншэнь хусян дуйдай.^[2]

References

1. ↑ Ager, Simon. "Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 1) in Sino-Tibetan languages". Omniglot. Retrieved 28 June 2017. 
2. ↑ http://www.boutler.de/translit/pinyin2russian.html

See also

• Palladius table
• Dungan language
• Romanization of Chinese
• Cyrillization of Japanese

External links

• Automatic Cyrillic transliteration of pinyin
• Annotation of Chinese with Palladius and other phonetic systems