Thread: transliteration

i was just wondering. If you were to do transliteration...how would you transliterate a word like "его" or "моего"?

would you transliterate it as ego or moego; or rather, as yevo or moyevo?

I ask because on some sites where I would like to post russian, it doesn't display the russian characters properly, so if I want to post russian, then I have to write it in latin characters.

Well moego and moyevo are different on two counts. One is E or Ye. The other is G or V.

G and V is answered easily, use G even though it's pronounced V.

There are many transliteration systems used for English alone and a multitude of others used for other target languages.

E or Ye. Personally I just transliterate Russian Е as E, unless it comes after a vowel, soft sign or at the beginning of a word where I put ye.

Его = Yego
Её = yeyo
Лена = Lena
Вы знаете = Vy znayete

The reason is most likely that if you always transliterate E as Ye it looks very messy

Privyet, myenya zovut Olyeg, ya zhivu v Sankt-Pyetyerburgye.
Privet, menya zovut Oleg, ya zhivu v Sankt-Peterburge (looks tidier).

However at the beginning of words it is necessary because

Екатеринбург - Ekaterinburg is noticeably different to Yekaterinburg.

The difference between E (Э) and Ye (Е) within a word is less noticeable.

Compare with Ukrainian where the letter Є (ye) is always transliterated as Ye. The reason is that the letter is not common, so you won't have to write Ye often. Russian E is everywhere, and ye everything looks messy.

As for Ё, you will often see it transliterated as E (Gorbachev - Горбачёв). I prefer to write Yo though, because

Ы = y
Й = у
ь = '
ъ = "
щ = shch
x = kh

-ский = I put -skiy, but it is usually (in newspapers and such) reduced to -sky

Transliteration is not primarily concerned with pronunciation. It is more focused on retaining spelling.

A phonetic rendering is called transcription.

I hate it when people write "Spaseeba". They can all fuck off.

Russian O is O. It doesn't matter if it is pronounced A, still write O in transliterations.

I use pretty standard transliteration. Here is your sig:

Хорошие новости для вас!!!
Исус очень любит вас:
Он жил любить вас, а умер спасать вас.

Со всех сторон мы угнетаемы, но нам не тесно; мы в недоумении, но не в отчаянии; гонимы, но не оставлены; низвергаемы, но не гибнем.


Khoroshiye novosti dlya vas!!!
Isus ochen' lyubit vas:
On zhil lyubit' vas, a umer spasat' vas.

So vsekh storon my ughetayemy, no nam ne tesno; my v nedoumenii, no ne v otchayanii; gonimy, no ne ostavleny; nizvergayemy, no ne gibnem.

wow. that was quite an explination. Thanks a bunch!

=)

Originally Posted by TATY

Transliteration is not primarily concerned with pronunciation. It is more focused on retaining spelling.

A phonetic rendering is called transcription.

Very good point.

Jesus is Иисус in Russian!

The citation from "Второе послание к Коринфянам" in Russian sounds like that:

Мы отовсюду притесняемы, но не стеснены; мы в отчаяннных обстоятельствах, но не отчаиваемся; мы гонимы, но не оставлены; низлагаемы, но не погибаем.

Он жил любить вас, а умер спасать вас.

This sounds awkward. Better: Он жил для того, чтобы вас любить, а умер, чтобы спасти вас.

Originally Posted by mashamania

Originally Posted by TATY

Transliteration is not primarily concerned with pronunciation. It is more focused on retaining spelling.

A phonetic rendering is called transcription.

Very good point.

I wish everyone knew this simple truth!

Originally Posted by Rtyom

Originally Posted by mashamania

Originally Posted by TATY

Transliteration is not primarily concerned with pronunciation. It is more focused on retaining spelling.

A phonetic rendering is called transcription.

Very good point.

I wish everyone knew this simple truth!

Yes. Because, by retain spelling, it also to a a certain degree will also retain the pronunciation.

The idea is that you can convert to English, then back to Russian. Of course this is not always possible, because some Russian letters transliterate to the same English letter ( е.g. Й usually = i or y. But i is also И and y is also Ы).

There are other transliteration systems for other languages.

Like Ш is
Sh for English
Ch for French
Sch for German
Š for Czech, Slovak, Croatian
Sz for Polish
S for Hungarian

This is because Sh, Ch, Sch, Š, Sz and S are all the same sounds, but they are just written differently in the different languages.

Like in Polish the combination of letter Sh doesn't really mean anything. Poles would just pronounce an S then an H.

Similary Ч is
Ch for English
Tch for French
Tsch for German
Č for Czech, Slovak, Croatian
Cz for Polish
Cs for Hungarian

Щ is shch for English, but for German it is SEVEN letters: schtsch!

Also, in most central and eastern European languages, the Letter J has the same sound as English Y. (e.g. German Jan is pronounced "Yan",)

Thus for many languages Й = J, Я = Ja, Ю = Ju, etc.
Actually in Serbian Cyrillic they don't have the letter Й, instead they have J. Yugoslavia in Serbian Cyrillic is Jугославиjа. In Croatian/Serbian Latin it is Jugoslavija. (Compare Russian Югославия, from Юг / Южний [south / southern] and Славия ["Slavland"].

This is especially important in Slavic languages written in the latin alphabet, because, for example, in most such languages, the Russian word Я (I) is Ja.

Sometimes using a more Eastern European transliteration system for Russian makes it looks more athentic. It's sort of like how it would look IF Russian used a latin script instead of Cyrillic.

Originally Posted by Rtyom

Jesus is Иисус in Russian!

The citation from "Второе послание к Коринфянам" in Russian sounds like that:

Мы отовсюду притесняемы, но не стеснены; мы в отчаяннных обстоятельствах, но не отчаиваемся; мы гонимы, но не оставлены; низлагаемы, но не погибаем.

Он жил любить вас, а умер спасать вас.

This sounds awkward. Better: Он жил для того, чтобы вас любить, а умер, чтобы спасти вас.

thanks. =)