Romanization


In linguistics, romanization or romanisation is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and transcription, for representing the spoken word, and combinations of both. Transcription methods can be subdivided into phonemic transcription, which records the phonemes or units of semantic meaning in speech, and more strict phonetic transcription, which records speech sounds with precision.

Methods

There are many consistent or standardized romanization systems. They can be classified by their characteristics. A particular system's characteristics may make it better-suited for various, sometimes contradictory applications, including document retrieval, linguistic analysis, easy readability, faithful representation of pronunciation.
  • Source, or donor language – A system may be tailored to romanize text from a particular language, or a series of languages, or for any language in a particular writing system. A language-specific system typically preserves language features like pronunciation, while the general one may be better for cataloguing international texts.
  • Target, or receiver language – Most systems are intended for an audience that speaks or reads a particular language.
  • Simplicity – Since the basic Latin alphabet has a smaller number of letters than many other writing systems, digraphs, diacritics, or special characters must be used to represent them all in Latin script. This affects the ease of creation, digital storage and transmission, reproduction, and reading of the romanized text.
  • Reversibility – Whether or not the original can be restored from the converted text. Some reversible systems allow for an irreversible simplified version.

Transliteration

If the romanization attempts to transliterate the original script, the guiding principle is a one-to-one mapping of characters in the source language into the target script, with less emphasis on how the result sounds when pronounced according to the reader's language. For example, the Nihon-shiki romanization of Japanese allows the informed reader to reconstruct the original Japanese kana syllables with 100% accuracy, but requires additional knowledge for correct pronunciation.

Transcription

Phonemic

Most romanizations are intended to enable the casual reader who is unfamiliar with the original script to pronounce the source language reasonably accurately. Such romanizations follow the principle of phonemic transcription and attempt to render the significant sounds of the original as faithfully as possible in the target language. The popular Hepburn Romanization of Japanese is an example of a transcriptive romanization designed for English speakers.

Phonetic

A phonetic conversion goes one step further and attempts to depict all phones in the source language, sacrificing legibility if necessary by using characters or conventions not found in the target script. In practice such a representation almost never tries to represent every possible allophone—especially those that occur naturally due to coarticulation effects—and instead limits itself to the most significant allophonic distinctions. The International Phonetic Alphabet is the most common system of phonetic transcription.

Compromise

For most language pairs, building a usable romanization involves a trade-off between the two extremes. Pure transcriptions are generally not possible, as the source language usually contains sounds and distinctions not found in the target language, but which must be shown for the romanized form to be comprehensible. Furthermore, due to diachronic and synchronic variance no written language represents any spoken language with perfect accuracy and the vocal interpretation of a script may vary by a great degree among languages. In modern times the chain of transcription is usually spoken foreign language, written foreign language, written native language, spoken native language. Reducing the number of those processes, i.e. removing one or both steps of writing, usually leads to more accurate oral articulations. In general, outside a limited audience of scholars, romanizations tend to lean more towards transcription. As an example, consider the Japanese martial art 柔術: the Nihon-shiki romanization zyûzyutu may allow someone who knows Japanese to reconstruct the kana syllables, but most native English speakers, or rather readers, would find it easier to guess the pronunciation from the Hepburn version, jūjutsu.

Romanization of specific writing systems

Arabic

The Arabic script is used to write Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Pashto and Sindhi as well as numerous other languages in the Muslim world, particularly African and Asian languages without alphabets of their own. Romanization standards include the following:

Arabic

Persian

UnicodeFinalMedialInitialIsolatedIPADMG ALA-LC BGN/PCGN EI UN UN Pronunciation
U+064EـَـَاَاَaaaaaaA as in cat
U+064FـُـُاُاُooouooO as in go
U+0648 U+064FـوـوooouooO as in go
U+0650ـِـِاِاِeieeeeE as in ten
U+064E U+0627ـَاـَاآآāāāāāāO as in hot
U+0622ـآـآآآā, ʾāā, ʼāāāāāO as in hot
U+064E U+06CCـَیāááāáāO as in hot
U+06CC U+0670ـیٰāááāāāO as in hot
U+064F U+0648ـُوـُواُواُوūūūu, ōūuU as in actual
U+0650 U+06CCـیـیـایـایīīīi, ēīiY as in happy
U+064E U+0648ـَوـَواَواَوauawowow, awowowO as in go
U+064E U+06CCـَیـَیـاَیـاَیaiayeyey, ayeyeyAy as in play
U+064E U+06CCـیِ–e, –ye–i, –yi–e, –ye–e, –ye–e, –ye–e, –yeYe as in yes
U+06C0ـهٔ–ye–ʼi–ye–ye–ye–yeYe as in yes

Notes:

Georgian

Georgian letterIPANational system
BGN/PCGN
ISO 9984
ALA-LC
Unofficial systemKartvelo translitNGR2
aaaaaaa
bbbbbbb
ggggggg
ddddddd
eeeeeee
vvvvvvv
zzzzzzz
eyēēéej
tT or ttt / t̊
iiiiiii
kkkkǩ
lllllll
mmmmmmm
nnnnnnn
jyyjĩ
ooooooo
pppp
zhzhžžJ, zh or jž
rrrrrrr
sssssss
tttt
wwŭ
uuuuuuu
pp or fpp / p̊
kq or kq or kk / k̊
ghghġg, gh or Rg, gh or R
qqqyqq
shshššsh or Sšx
chchʼč̕čʻch or Cč
tstsʼc or tscc
dzdzjżdz or Zʒ
tsʼtsccw, c or tsʃ
chʼchččW, ch or tchʃ̌
khkhxxx or kh x
jjǰjj-j
hhhhhhh
ōōȯ


Notes:

Greek

There are romanization systems for both Modern and Ancient Greek.

Hebrew

The Hebrew alphabet is romanized using several standards:

Indic (Brahmic) scripts

The Brahmic family of abugidas is used for languages of the Indian subcontinent and south-east Asia. There is a long tradition in the west to study Sanskrit and other Indic texts in Latin transliteration. Various transliteration conventions have been used for Indic scripts since the time of Sir William Jones.

Devanagari–nastaʿlīq (Hindustani)

is an Indo-Aryan language with extreme digraphia and diglossia resulting from the Hindi–Urdu controversy starting in the 1800s. Technically, Hindustani itself is recognized by neither the language community nor any governments. Two standardized registers, Standard Hindi and Standard Urdu, are recognized as official languages in India and Pakistan. However, in practice the situation is,
  • In Pakistan: Standard Urdu is the "high" variety, whereas Hindustani is the "low" variety used by the masses.
  • In India, both Standard Hindi and Standard Urdu are the "H" varieties, whereas Hindustani is the "L" variety used by the masses and written in either devanagari or nastaʿlīq.
The digraphia renders any work in either script largely inaccessible to users of the other script, though otherwise Hindustani is a perfectly mutually intelligible language, essentially meaning that any kind of text-based open source collaboration is impossible among devanagari and nastaʿlīq readers.
Initiated in 2011, the Hamari Boli Initiative is a full-scale open-source language planning initiative aimed at Hindustani script, style, status & lexical reform and modernization. One of primary stated objectives of Hamari Boli is to relieve Hindustani of the crippling devanagari–nastaʿlīq digraphia by way of romanization.

Chinese

Romanization of the Sinitic languages, particularly Mandarin, has proved a very difficult problem, although the issue is further complicated by political considerations. Because of this, many romanization tables contain Chinese characters plus one or more romanizations or Zhuyin.

Mandarin

  1. Gwoyeu Romatzyh,
  2. Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II,
  3. Tongyong Pinyin, and
  4. Hanyu Pinyin.
    Singapore

Cantonese

Min Nan or Hokkien

Min Dong

Min Bei

Japanese

Romanization is called "rōmaji" in Japanese. The most common systems are:
  • Hepburn : phonetic transcription to Anglo-American practices, used in geographical names
  • Nihon-shiki : transliteration. Also adopted as in 1989.
  • Kunrei-shiki : phonemic transcription. Also adopted as.
  • JSL : phonemic transcription. Named after the book Japanese: The Spoken Language by Eleanor Jorden.
  • ALA-LC: Similar to Modified Hepburn
  • Wāpuro: transliteration. Not strictly a system, but a collection of common practices that enables input of Japanese text.

Korean

The following systems are currently the most widely used:

Thai

, spoken in Thailand and some areas of Laos, Burma and China, is written with its own script, probably descended from mixture of Tai–Laotian and Old Khmer, in the Brahmic family.

Nuosu

The Nuosu language, spoken in southern China, is written with its own script, the Yi script. The only existing romanization system is YYPY, which represents tone with letters attached to the end of syllables, as Nuosu forbids codas. It does not use diacritics, and as such due to the large phonemic inventory of Nuosu, it requires frequent use of digraphs, including for monophthong vowels.

Tibetan

The Tibetan script has two official romanization systems: Tibetan Pinyin and Roman Dzongkha.

Cyrillic

In English language library catalogues, bibliographies, and most academic publications, the Library of Congress transliteration method is used worldwide.
In linguistics, scientific transliteration is used for both Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabets. This applies to Old Church Slavonic, as well as modern Slavic languages that use these alphabets.

Belarusian

Bulgarian

A system based on scientific transliteration and ISO/R 9:1968 was considered official in Bulgaria since the 1970s. Since the late 1990s, Bulgarian authorities have switched to the so-called Streamlined System avoiding the use of diacritics and optimized for compatibility with English. This system became mandatory for public use with a law passed in 2009. Where the old system uses <č,š,ž,št,c,j,ă>, the new system uses .
The new Bulgarian system was endorsed for official use also by UN in 2012, and by BGN and PCGN in 2013.

Russian

There is no single universally accepted system of writing Russian using the Latin script—in fact there are a huge number of such systems: some are adjusted for a particular target language, some are designed as a librarian's transliteration, some are prescribed for Russian travellers' passports; the transcription of some names is purely traditional. All this has resulted in great reduplication of names. E.g. the name of the Russian composer Tchaikovsky may also be written as Tchaykovsky, Tchajkovskij, Tchaikowski, Tschaikowski, Czajkowski, Čajkovskij, Čajkovski, Chajkovskij, Çaykovski, Chaykovsky, Chaykovskiy, Chaikovski, Tshaikovski, Tšaikovski, Tsjajkovskij etc. Systems include:

Syriac

The Latin script for Syriac was developed in the 1930s, following the state policy for minority languages of the Soviet Union, with some material published.

Ukrainian

The 2010 Ukrainian National system has been adopted by the UNGEGN in 2012 and by the BGN/PCGN in 2020. It is also very close to the modified ALA-LC system, which has remained unchanged since 1941.

Overview and summary

The chart below shows the most common phonemic transcription romanization used for several different alphabets. While it is sufficient for many casual users, there are multiple alternatives used for each alphabet, and many exceptions. For details, consult each of the language sections above.
RomanizedIPAGreekCyrillicAmazighHebrewArabicPersianKatakanaHangulBopomofo
AaAАַ, ֲ, ָَ, اا, آ
AEai̯/ɛΑΙ
AIaiי ַ
BbΜΠ, ΒБבּﺏ ﺑ ﺒ ﺐﺏ ﺑ
Ck/sΞ
CHʧTΣ̈Чצ׳چ
CHIʨi
DdΝΤ, ΔДⴷ, ⴹדﺩ — ﺪ, ﺽ ﺿ ﻀ ﺾد
DHðΔדֿﺫ — ﺬ
DZʣΤΖЅ
Ee/ɛΕ, ΑΙЭ, ֱ, י ֵֶ, ֵ, י ֶ
EOʌ
EUɯ
FfΦФפ ﻑ ﻓ ﻔ ﻒ
FUɸɯ
GɡΓΓ, ΓΚ, ΓГⴳ, ⴳⵯגگ
GHɣΓҒגֿ, עֿﻍ ﻏ ﻐ ﻎق غ
HhΗҺⵀ, ⵃח, הﻩ ﻫ ﻬ ﻪ, ﺡ ﺣ ﺤ ﺢه ح ﻫ
HAha
HEhe
HIhi
HOho
Ii/ɪΗ, Ι, Υ, ΕΙ, ΟΙИ, Іִ, י ִدِ
IYijدِي
JʤTZ̈ДЖ, Џג׳ﺝ ﺟ ﺠ ﺞج
JJʦ͈/ʨ͈
KkΚКⴽ, ⴽⵯכּﻙ ﻛ ﻜ ﻚک
KAka
KEke
KHxXХכ, חֿ ﺥ ﺧ ﺨ ﺦخ
KIki
KK
KOko
KU
LlΛЛלﻝ ﻟ ﻠ ﻞل
MmΜМמ ﻡ ﻣ ﻤ ﻢم
MAma
MEme
MImi
MOmo
MU
NnΝНנ ﻥ ﻧ ﻨ ﻦن
NAna
NEne
NGŋ
NIɲi
NOno
NU
OoΟ, ΩО, ֳ, וֹֹُا
OEø
PpΠПפּپ
PP
PSpsΨ
QqΘקﻕ ﻗ ﻘ ﻖغ ق
RrΡРⵔ, ⵕרﺭ — ﺮر
RAɾa
REɾe
RIɾi
ROɾo
RUɾɯ
SsΣСⵙ, ⵚס, שׂﺱ ﺳ ﺴ ﺲ, ﺹ ﺻ ﺼ ﺺس ث ص
SAsa
SEse
SHʃΣ̈Шשׁﺵ ﺷ ﺸ ﺶش
SHCHʃʧЩ
SHIɕi
SOso
SS
SU
TtΤТⵜ, ⵟט, תּ, תﺕ ﺗ ﺘ ﺖ, ﻁ ﻃ ﻄ ﻂت ط
TAta
TEte
THθΘתֿﺙ ﺛ ﺜ ﺚ
TOto
TSʦΤΣЦצ
TSUʦɯ
TT
UuΟΥ, ΥУ, וֻּدُ
UIɰi
UWuwدُو
VvBВבو
WwΩו, ווﻭ — ﻮ
WAwa
WAE
WEwe
WIy/ɥi
WOwo
Xx/ksΞ, Χ
YjΥ, Ι, ΓΙЙ, Ы, Јיﻱ ﻳ ﻴ ﻲی
YAjaЯ
YAE
YEjeЕ, Є
YEO
YIjiЇ
YOjoЁ
YUjuЮ
ZzΖЗⵣ, ⵥזﺯ — ﺰ, ﻅ ﻇ ﻈ ﻆز ظ ذ ض
ZHʐ/ʒΖ̈Жז׳ژ