Few people know that if necessary, use English letters to write Russian words, as is often done on the Web, you need to use the transliteration rule. Moreover, it is not one at all and can be applied in different situations.
Now transliteration is most often used on the Internet, in the absence of a Russian-language layout, or in the preparation of documents that require the writing of names in English. But before we learn the rules of Russian transliteration, we will find out what the concept itself means.
The concept
Transliteration - the transfer of the letters of the alphabet of one language, the letters of the alphabet of another language. The transliteration rule must be respected by everyone, so that, for example, the spelling of Russian words in English or Latin letters can be understood and read.
Now, as mentioned earlier, transliteration is most often used on the Internet. Users can meet on the forum post written in Latin letters. Usually, those who do not have a Russian layout do this.
Unfortunately, not everything written like that is understandable. Especially if a person is not familiar with the letters of Latin or English at all. But do not forget that the official rules of transliteration are just created so that the information is understandable to everyone.
In addition, it is possible to use transliteration when entering the site. Especially if you want to register on a foreign language resource. In this case, you will have to familiarize yourself with the transliteration rules for first and last names.
Appearance History and Use Cases
The need for transliteration appeared long ago, back in the century before last. This is due to the fact that the books that were in the library were not all translated into Latin, but an alphabetical index had to be compiled for simplified searches and catalogs. Then the development of transliteration rules for most languages began.
Of course, it is clear that the transliteration rule in the Russian language does not have such an important meaning. But in other languages you often have to use software that helps you translate, for example, Latin letters into hieroglyphs. Agree that using a standard keyboard is difficult. And in the case of the Japanese language, it will have to have great functionality and an impressive amount of keys.
Transliteration for the Japanese language is necessary because it is impossible to translate one or another word into English. This is due to a different number of sounds, and to a certain similarity in pronunciation, as well as to other facts.
Therefore, in order not to look for the rule of international transliteration, on the Internet you can find special online programs for transliteration. It is worth noting that many of the current Russian-language services build a special tab that allows you to automatically translate one letter to another.
Common rules
As already mentioned, transliteration rules in Russia do not have strict provisions. Therefore, for example, for the letter “I”, several variants of writing in Latin letters can be used: “ya”, “ja”, “ia”, “a”, for “z” you can use “zh”, “j”, “z "," G ". But there are other letters that have only one spelling variant, “o” - “o”, “p” - “r”, “p” - “p”, etc.
Game transliteration
In addition to the above option, which is based on the similarity of pronunciation and sound, there is also one more. In his case, one should rely on the visual similarity of the spelling. It so happened that such a principle is used to a greater extent in the world of gamers. Players like to playfully use nicknames, written Russian words in English. This is due to the fact that before, when the e-sports industry was not so developed, it was not possible to write a Russian nickname. Therefore, the guys invented gaming transliteration.
The sound similarity of characters was excluded in it, but visually everyone could read the word with ease. It is worth noting that gaming transliteration in itself is difficult to create your own masterpieces, although it is easy to understand. There should be a creative streak. Using this option is extremely inconvenient in SMS messages and emails.
Latin version
There is a standard that is responsible for transliterating Cyrillic letters into Latin letters. In Russia, this standard is GOST 16876-71. It can be used in the scientific field or in technical information. Moreover, this document is an assistant not only for Russia, but also for countries that use the Cyrillic alphabet: Ukraine, Belarus, Bulgaria, Serbia, etc.
Transliteration in this way can be done in two ways. The first is the use of diacritics, the second is a combination of Latin letters. The first option uses letters that cannot be found on a standard keyboard, so its use is likely to require the intervention of a third-party program.
The second option is similar to what was described above. Here, many combinations are predictable and understandable for everyone. For example, the letter "sh" is translated as "sh", and the letter "u" is translated as "shh". It is worth noting that the choice of one of the two options for this standard will not depend on your mood, but on the information authorities. They must determine this fact.
If it is necessary to use machine-readable media, then it is mandatory to use only the second option with combinations of Latin letters.
It is worth saying that this standard was changed to GOST 7.79-2000, which began to function in 2002 and underwent minor changes. In turn, the first GOST has served since 1973.
International
The rules of international transliteration were developed in 1951 and entered into force five years later. The formation of the provisions involved the Institute of Linguistics. This format of the rules is quite complicated and, despite its similarity with the previous ones, has some clarifications. For example, transliteration of the letter “e” may occur with the help of “e” or “je”. The first option should be used after consonants, the second option at the beginning of a word, after vowels and soft and hard signs.
There are several such rules and they should be taken into account. Now that the GOST 7.79-2000 standard has entered into force, the above system of rules does not apply, although it has a fairly simple form.
Russian passport
If you decide to apply for a passport, you will have to carefully verify the correct spelling of your name and surname in Latin letters. The reliability of the document will depend on this.
Not all citizens pay attention to how their name is written in Latin letters. When the question arises of issuing a foreign passport, immediately there are problems that could have been avoided. Those who come across this for the first time are surprised at the absurd spelling of their name in Latin letters, which differs from the English version.
Do not be afraid or panic right away. Nobody came up with such a spelling; it is created by a special program. When the inspector enters your data in Russian, the software itself translates the information. Moreover, the transliteration rule is observed strictly in accordance with the standards established by law.
Of course, periodically in each country there are changes in such documents. Therefore, in order not to make people wise and puzzled, this task is entrusted to artificial intelligence. The computer translates the first and last name so that no questions arise.
It is worth noting that the rules for transliterating surnames and names in Russia for a foreign passport changed last time in 2015. Prior to that, the changes concerned the topic in 2010. Interestingly, different departments of the FMS used different positions. And since 2015, an international standard has been in force.
New changes
The latest changes have affected only a couple of letters “y” and “c”, now they are translated as “I” and “TS”, respectively. The meaning also appeared for the letter "e" - "e". If these changes affect your first or last name, you should check the new spelling. You can do this without leaving your home, on the Internet.
Website Addresses
If you are a beginner webmaster and faced with the problem of translating URLs, you should pay attention to what you need to know in this case. It is important to note that the use of the rules of the so-called vulgar transliteration is absolutely undesirable in this case. This is due to the fact that when forming the address, it is worthwhile to achieve the maximum reliability and accuracy necessary for search engines to correctly recognize your site.
Therefore, to translate the URL, it is better to use international transliteration rules. Just remember that you have a restriction in the characters: [0-9], [az], [AZ], [_], [-]. If other characters are used, the address may not be displayed correctly.
Of course, many site designers have long saved their users from manual changes and difficult decisions. Now they carry out all translit automatically. In the absence of an embedded system, you can use the extensions.
If other difficulties arise, and you do not know the rules for transliterating names or surnames, the Internet is full of Russian-language sites that carry out online translation.