Translation transcription

Transcription is a method of writing down speech sounds.

It is essential to differentiate between a phonetic transcription and a practical (or translation) transcription. In a phonetic transcription, sounds are depicted by special symbols on the basis of their articulatory and auditory identity. A phonetic transcription is an intralinguistic operation, that is, it deals with only one language: Anchorage [`xNkqrIG], Oakland [`qVklxnd].

A practical transcription is an interlinguistic operation as it deals with two languages: the sounds of the source language word are rendered by the letters of the target languge: Anchorage – Анкоридж, Oakland - Окленд. Because the English (Latin) and Russian (Cyrillic) alphabets and sounds do not coincide, there are special rules48 for representing English sounds by Russian letters and Russian sounds by English letters.

The most important rules are as follows:

1. Transcribing English sounds with Russian letters:

· Interdental [q, D] correspond to the Russian Т: Th atcher – Т этчер, Th ackeray – Т еккерей. Sometimes these sounds correspond to the Russian C, which is a bit outdated: Galswor th y – Голсуор с и. In Greek words, the interdental sound is rendered by the Russian Ф: A th ens – А ф ины, Th emistocles – Ф емистокл.

· The English [w] is transmitted by the letter У if followed by a vowel: W illiam – У ильям, W ilder – У айлдер. But when followed by the vowel [u], the consonant [w] is rendered by the letter В: W oolf – В улф, W odehouse – В удхаус. However, there are some traditional cases of the sound [w] represented by the letter В: W ashington – В ашингтон, W alter Scott – В альтер Скотт. The same is true in reference to the borrowed (mostly German) names: W agner – В агнер, W ilhelm – В ильгельм.

· The English [h] can be represented in two ways: either by Х: Hailey – Хейли, or by Г: Hamilton – Гамильтон. Thus some words acquire two forms in Russian: Hoffman – Хофман, Гофман.

· [N] is transliterated by НГ: Jenni ng s – Дженни нг с.

· The vowel [з:] after the consonant corresponds to the Russian Ё: B ur ns – Б ё рнс. In the beginning of the word, this sound is represented by the letter Э: Ear l’s Court – Э рлз-Корт.

· [æ ] is represented in Russian by Э / Е / А: B a tman – Б э тмен, J a ck – Дж е к, Gl a sgow – Гл а зго.

Russian sounds in English transcription are usually represented as follows:

· [j], represented in writing by the letter Й, corresponds to the English Y/I in the end of the word: Толсто й – Tolsto y, Троцк ий – Trotsk y / Trotsk i; to I in the beginning of the word: Й ошкар-Ола – I oshkar-Ola. If [j] makes part and parcel of a vowel letter (Е, Ё, Ю, Я) it is represented by Y or I: Е нисей – Ye nisei, Порфирь е вич – Porfir ie vich, Ю гославия – Yu goslavia, Я лта – Ya lta.

· The Russian [ж] is rendered by ZH: Ж итомир – Zh itomir.

· [х] corresponds to KH or, rarely, H: На х одка – Na kh odka.

· [ц] is represented by TS: Ц елиноград – Ts elinograd. Care should be taken, however, with foreign words: they usually have their native form: Цюрих – Zurich, Цейлон – Ceylon, Цзянси – Jiangxi.

· [ч] may correspond either to CH or to TCH: Ч ехов – Ch ekhov, Ч айковский – Tch aikovsky.

· [щ] is represented by the cluster SHCH or SCH: Щ елково – Shch elkovo.

· [ы] usually corresponds to Y: Куйб ы шев – Kuib y shev.

One should pay special attention to transcribing East Asian (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) words into English and Russian, especially when doing tertiary translation of Asian words from English into Russian or vice versa.

It is neccessary to remember that because of the difference in phonetic systems, East Asian sounds are designated differently in English and Russian. Thus, in Japanese words, the sound symbolized by the English sh is somewhere between [s] and [S]; therefore, in Russian it is transcribed by the letter C: e.g., Hiroshima – Хиросима, shogun – сёгун. The letter L can indicate the sound quality between [l] and [r]. For example, the name of the Korean president Kim Il Sung corresponds in Russian to Ким Ир Сен.

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