Transliteration

Abroad, transliteration, defined as writing a word in a different alphabet,49 is often associated with transcription.However, strictly speaking, the notion of transliteration is based on representing written characters of one language by the characters of another language.

There are a number of different systems for transliterating the Cyrillic alphabet. Different languages have different equivalents for Russian letters. Thus, the Russian name Лапшин can be rendered in English as Lapshin or Lapšin, in French as Lapchine, in German as Lapschin, in Italian as Lapscin, in Polish as Lapszyn. Even in English there are several systems for transliteration of modern Russian, which range from the system suitable for works intended for the general reading public to those suitable for the needs of special in various fields.

The major systems for transliterating Russian words into English are the British Standards Institution (BSI), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the Library of Congress (LC), and the Permanent Committee on Geographic Names (PCGN) systems.50 The chart in Appendix 1 will give the idea of the differences between these systems and will be helpful in practicing transliteration.

When transliterating, it is best to use the version which most closely approximates the source language word. Thus the forms ruble, kopek, tsar are preferable to the alternatives rouble, kopeck, czar.

The mute r is always transliterated in Russian: Morning Star – газета ’’Морнинг Стар” whereas the mute e is usually omitted: Fosse – Фосс.

Transliteration and transcription often compete, so that sometimes it is difficult to state how to render a word (especially a personal or place name) in the other language. But transliteration is preferred to transcription in bibliographical citations found in publications: Arakin, V. Sravnitelnaja tipologija anglijskogo i russkogo jazykov.

In the dispute between transcription and transliteration, some factors should be kept in mind:

· modern and outdated traditions: these days the English great physicist Newton is known in Russia as Ньютон (transcription), though in the 18^th century M. Lomonosov wrote about Невтон (transliteration).

· national traditions: in the source language the form of a name can follow the spelling traditions of its original country. The target language form often follows the original pronunciation tradition: Mozart – Моцарт; Dvořak – Дворжак, Singer – Зингер.

Special attention should be given to transliterating Chinese words into Russian and English, especially in tertiary translation. There are two ways of transliterating Chinese syllables (and words) into English. In the English-speaking world since 1892 Chinese words have usually been transliterated according to a phonetic spelling system called Wade-Giles romanization, propounded by British Orientalists Sir Thomas Wade and Herbert Giles. Since 1958 another phonetic romanization known as Pinyin (spelling) has had official standing in the People's Republic of China, where it is used for telegrams, mass media and in education. Therefore a Chinese loan word can have two English scripts: e.g., Мао Цзэдун – Mao Zedong, Mao Tse-tung; Пекин – Beijing, Peking (in these words the difference in form is caused, beside the transliteration systems, by different dialect origins of borrowing). When translating words borrowed from Chinese, it is recommended to consult special charts of transliteration Chinese syllables (see Appendix 2).

The main principles of correspondence between English and Russian syllables in transliterating Chinese words are as follows:

· the English combination ng corresponds to the nonpalatalized Russian н, e.g. ku ng fu – ку н -фу;

· the English n corresponds to the the Russian palatalized нь: fe n – фэ нь (фынь);

· the difference between voiced and voiceless consonants is phonologically irrelevant in Chinese; therefore, the Pinyin and Wade-Giles systems may differ: baihua, pai-hua – байхуа;

· in Pinyin, the vowel letter o before the non-palatalized ng corresponds to the Russian у; in the Wade-Giles it corresponds to u: e.g., Dong, Tung – Дун, Тун;

· the Russian Ж corresponds to the Pinyin R or Wade-Giles J (before front vowels): renminbi – женьминьби;

· care should be taken not to confuse the Pinyin palatalized J (Wade-Giles CH) corresponding to the Russian ЦЗ: J iang (Ch iang) – Цзян; in Japanese words the letter J before a front vowel corresponds to the Russian ДЖ / ДЗ’: jiu jitsu – джиу-джитсу, дзю-дзюцу;

· the nonpalatalized ЦЗ corresponds to the Pinyin Z or Wade-Giles TS: Zang, Tsang – Цзанг, Мао Цзэдун – Mao Zedong, Mao Tse-tung. The Japanese Z corresponds to the Russian ДЗ: Zen Buddhism – Дзэн Буддизм;

· the Pinyin palatalized X is equal to the Wade-Giles HS and corresponds to the Russian С: Xianggang, Hsiangkang – Сянган;

· the Pinyin palatalized Q (pronounced [tò])is equal to the Wade-Giles CH and corresponds to the Russian Ц: Qinghai – Цинхай;

· the Pinyin ZH, equal to the Wade-Giles CH, corresponds to the Russian ЧЖ: Zhejiang – Чжэцзян.

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