Cyrillization of Chinese
The cyrillization of Chinese is the transcription of Chinese characters into the Cyrillic alphabet.
The Palladius system is the official Russian standard for transcribing Mandarin Chinese into Russian, with variants existing for Ukrainian, Belarusian and the various languages of Russia. It was created by Palladius Kafarov, a Russian sinologist and monk who spent thirty years in China in the nineteenth century. Other languages that use the Cyrillic script have systems designed for their own language.
Russian system
Initials
Note that because the Russian version of the Cyrillic alphabet has no letters for dz or dzh, the digraphs цз and чж are used respectively.Finals
In composites, coda ng is transcribed нъ when the following syllable starts with a vowel. For example, the names of the cities of Chang'an and Hengyang are transcribed as Чанъань and Хэнъян.In syllables with no initial, w is transcribed as в in all cases except wu, transcribed as у. For example, the names of the cities of Wuwei and Wanning are transcribed as Увэй and Ваньнин.
Comparison chart
This table establishes correspondence between the Russian Palladius system together with the two Romanization systems most commonly used in English-speaking countries: Pinyin and Wade–Giles. It contains every syllable found in Great Chinese–Russian Dictionary.Note that the Palladius system does not distinguish between pinyin luo and the rare syllable lo ; both are written ло.
Exceptions
The names of the cities of Beijing and Nanjing are transcribed as Пекин and Нанкин, much as Peking and Nanking were still used in English-speaking countries until recently. Hong Kong may be both Сянган and Гонконг ; the latter is more common.In Russian borrowings from Chinese, the syllable хуй is generally transcribed as хуэй or occasionally хой ; this is because is a taboo word for "penis" in Russian and several other Slavic languages. Dictionaries, however, may contain the unaltered spelling; as is found in Palladius' own dictionary from 1888, and Oshanin's Great Chinese–Russian Dictionary.
Older documents contain variants мэн — мын, мэнь — мынь, фэн — фын, фэнь — фынь, пэн — пын, hence Aomen is traditionally spelled Аомынь in Russian. Most modern texts contain э, with some exceptions.
Pre-reform version
Prior to the reform of Russian orthography in 1918, the system differed in a few respects, as can be seen in Palladius's 1888 dictionary:- ъ was used at the end of a word ending in a consonant, as was standard in pre-reform orthography.
- е → ѣ
- ё → іо
- эр → эрръ
- -юэ → -юе
- мэн, мэнь and фэн were written мынъ, мынь and фынъ, respectively; this did not affect фэнь, however.
Ukrainian system
Initials
Finals
In composites, coda ng is transcribed н' when the following syllable starts with a vowel. For example, the names of the cities of Chang'an and Hengyang are transcribed as Чан'ань and Хен'ян.In syllables with no initial, w is transcribed as в in all cases except wu, transcribed as у. For example, the names of the cities of Wuwei and Wanning are transcribed as Увей and Ваньнін.
Comparison chart
This table establishes correspondence between the Ukrainian Palladius system together with the two Romanization systems most commonly used in English-speaking countries: Pinyin and Wade–Giles.Cyrillization with the Ukrainian alphabet differs from the Russian as follows:
- е → є
- ё → йо
- э → е
- г → ґ
- и → і
- * in жи, чжи, чи, ши still и is used
- * Syllables without initial consonant start with ї.
- ы → и
- ъ → '
Belarusian system
- ао, яо → аа, яа
- и → і
- * in ri, zhi, chi, shi there is ы.
- ъ → '
Serbian system