Home      Discussion      Topics      Dictionary      Almanac
Signup       Login
Romanization of Russian

Romanization of Russian

Discussion
Ask a question about 'Romanization of Russian'
Start a new discussion about 'Romanization of Russian'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum
 
Encyclopedia
Romanization of the Russian alphabet is the process of transliterating
Transliteration
Transliteration is a subset of the science of hermeneutics. It is a form of translation, and is the practice of converting a text from one script into another...

 the Russian language
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...

 from the Cyrillic alphabet
Cyrillic alphabet
The Cyrillic script or azbuka is an alphabetic writing system developed in the First Bulgarian Empire during the 10th century AD at the Preslav Literary School...

 into the Latin alphabet
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...

. Such transliteration is necessary for writing Russian names and other words in the non-Cyrillic letters.

Romanization is also essential for the input of Russian text into computers by users who either do not have a keyboard or word processor set up for input of Cyrillic, or else they are not capable of typing
Typing
Typing is the process of inputting text into a device, such as a typewriter, cell phone, computer, or a calculator, by pressing keys on a keyboard. It can be distinguished from other means of input, such as the use of pointing devices like the computer mouse, and text input via speech...

 rapidly on the distinct Cyrillic keyboard. In the latter case, they would type using a system of transliteration fitted for their keyboard layout
Keyboard layout
A keyboard layout is any specific mechanical, visual, or functional arrangement of the keys, legends, or key–meaning associations of a computer, typewriter, or other typographic keyboard....

, such as for English QWERTY
QWERTY
QWERTY is the most common modern-day keyboard layout. The name comes from the first six letters appearing in the topleft letter row of the keyboard, read left to right: Q-W-E-R-T-Y. The QWERTY design is based on a layout created for the Sholes and Glidden typewriter and sold to Remington in the...

 keyboards, and then use an automated tool to convert the text into Cyrillic.


Scientific transliteration


Scientific transliteration, also known as the International Scholarly System, is a system that has been used in linguistics
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....

 since the 19th century. It is based on the Czech alphabet
Czech alphabet
The Czech alphabet is a version of the Latin script, used when writing Czech. Its basic principles are "one sound, one letter" and the addition of diacritical marks above letters to represent sounds alien to Latin...

 and formed the basis of the GOST and ISO systems.

GOST 16876 (1971)


Developed by the National Administration for Geodesy and Cartography at the USSR Council of Ministers, GOST 16876-71 has been in service for over 30 years and is the only romanization system that does not use diacritic
Diacritic
A diacritic is a glyph added to a letter, or basic glyph. The term derives from the Greek διακριτικός . Diacritic is both an adjective and a noun, whereas diacritical is only an adjective. Some diacritical marks, such as the acute and grave are often called accents...

s. Replaced by GOST 7.79-2000.

ST SEV 1362 (1978)


This standard is an equivalent of GOST 16876-71 and was adopted as an official standard of the COMECON
Comecon
The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance , 1949–1991, was an economic organisation under hegemony of Soviet Union comprising the countries of the Eastern Bloc along with a number of communist states elsewhere in the world...

.

GOST 7.79 (2002)


GOST 7.79-2000 System of Standards on Information, Librarianship, and Publishing-–Rules for Transliteration of the Cyrillic Characters Using the Latin Alphabet is the newest document on transliteration in the series of GOST standards
GOST
GOST refers to a set of technical standards maintained by the Euro-Asian Council for Standardization, Metrology and Certification , a regional standards organization operating under the auspices of the Commonwealth of Independent States .All sorts of regulated standards are included, with examples...

. This standard is an adoption of ISO 9:1995
ISO 9
The international standard ISO 9 establishes a system for the transliteration into Latin characters of Cyrillic characters constituting the alphabets of many Slavic and some non-Slavic languages....

 and is now the official standard of both Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

 and the Commonwealth of Independent States
Commonwealth of Independent States
The Commonwealth of Independent States is a regional organization whose participating countries are former Soviet Republics, formed during the breakup of the Soviet Union....

 (CIS).

ISO/R 9


ISO/R 9, established in 1954 and updated in 1968, was the adoption of the scientific transliteration
Scientific transliteration
Scientific transliteration, variously called academic, linguistic, or scholarly transliteration, is an international system for transliteration of text from the Cyrillic to the Latin alphabet...

 by the International Organization for Standardization
International Organization for Standardization
The International Organization for Standardization , widely known as ISO, is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations. Founded on February 23, 1947, the organization promulgates worldwide proprietary, industrial and commercial...

 (ISO). It covers Russian and seven other Slavic languages.

ISO 9


ISO 9:1995 is the current transliteration standard from ISO. It is based on its predecessor ISO/R 9:1968, which it deprecates; for Russian, the two are the same except in the treatment of five modern letters. ISO 9:1995 is the first language-independent, univocal system of one character for one character equivalents (by the use of diacritics) that faithfully represents the original and allows for reverse transliteration for Cyrillic text in any contemporary language.

United Nations romanization system


The UNGEGN, a Working Group of the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

, in 1987 recommended a romanization system for geographical names, which was based on the 1983 version of GOST 16876-71
GOST 16876-71
GOST 16876-71 is a romanization system devised by the National Administration for Geodesy and Cartography of the Soviet Union. It is based on the scientific transliteration system used in linguistics. GOST was an international standard so it included provision for a number of the languages of...

. It may be found in some international cartographic products.

ALA-LC


American Library Association
American Library Association
The American Library Association is a non-profit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 62,000 members....

 and Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...

 (ALA-LC) romanization tables for Slavic alphabets (updated 1997) are used in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

n libraries and in the British Library since 1975.

The formal, unambiguous version of the system requires some diacritics and two-letter tie characters, which are often omitted in practice.

British Standard


British Standard 2979:1958 is the main system of the Oxford University Press, and a variation is used by the British Library to catalogue publications acquired up to 1975 (the Library of Congress system
ALA-LC romanization for Russian
The ALA-LC Romanization tables for Slavic alphabets is a set of standards for romanization of texts in various writing systems used in North American libraries and publications. The latest version was published by the American Library Association & Library of Congress in 1997...

 is used for newer acquisitions).

BGN/PCGN


The BGN/PCGN system is relatively intuitive for Anglophones to read and pronounce. In many publications, a simplified form of the system is used to render English versions of Russian names, typically converting ë to yo, simplifying -iy and -yy endings to -y, and omitting apostrophes for ъ and ь. It can be rendered using only the basic letters and punctuation found on English-language keyboards: no diacritics or unusual letters are required, although the interpunct
Interpunct
An interpunct —also called an interpoint—is a small dot used for interword separation in ancient Latin script, which also appears in some modern languages as a stand-alone sign inside a word. It is present in Unicode as code point ....

 character (·) may be used to avoid ambiguity.

This particular standard is part of the BGN/PCGN romanization system
BGN/PCGN romanization
BGN/PCGN romanization refers to the systems for romanization and Roman-script spelling conventions adopted by the United States Board on Geographic Names and the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use .The systems have been approved by the BGN and the PCGN for...

 which was developed by the United States Board on Geographic Names
United States Board on Geographic Names
The United States Board on Geographic Names is a United States federal body whose purpose is to establish and maintain uniform usage of geographic names throughout the U.S. government.-Overview:...

 and by the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use
Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use
The Permanent Committee on Geographical Names is an independent inter-departmental body established in 1919. Its function is to establish standard names for places outside the UK, for the use of the British government....

. The portion of the system pertaining to the Russian language
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...

 was adopted by BGN in 1944 and by PCGN in 1947.

Old system 1997–2010


In the Soviet international passports, transliteration was based on French rules (but without diacritics), so all of the names were transliterated in a French-style system.

In 1997, with the introduction of new Russian passport
Russian passport
Russian passports are of two types: domestic passports issued to citizens of Russia for the purpose of certifying identity, international passports are issued for the purpose of international travel.- Internal passport :...

s, a diacritics-free English-oriented system was established by the Ministry of Internal Affairshttp://www.rg.ru/2004/01/22/pasport-doc.html, but this system was also abandoned in 2010.

New system 2010


In 2006, GOST 52535.1-2006 was adopted, which defines technical requirements and standards for Russian international passports and introduces its own system of transliteration. In 2010, the Federal Migratory Service
Federal Migratory Service (Russia)
The Federal Migration Service is the federal executive body that implements the state policy on migration and performing law enforcement functions, functions for control, supervision and provision of public services in the field of migration. Currently, the jurisdiction of the Russian Interior...

 of Russia approved Order No. 26, stating that all personal names in the passports issued after 2010 must be transliterated using GOST 52535.1-2006. Because of some differences between the new system and the old one, citizens who want to retain the old version of a name's transliteration, especially which was in the old pre-2010 passport, may apply to the local migratory office before acquiring a new passport.

Transliteration table

Common systems for romanizing Russian
Cyrillic Scholarly ISO/R 9:1968 GOST 1971 (2) UN (1987) ISO 9:1995; GOST 2002 (A) ALA-LC British Standard BGN/PCGN Passport (1997–2010) Passport (2010–)
А а a a a a a a a a a a
Б б b b b b b b b b b b
В в v v v v v v v v v v
Г г g g g g g g g g g g
Д д d d d d d d d d d d
Е е e e e e e e e  e, ye*   ye, e e
Ё ё ë ë yo ë ë ë ë  ë, yë*   ye, e e
Ж ж ž ž zh ž ž zh zh zh zh zh
З з z z z z z z z z z z
И и i i i i i i i i i i
Й й j j j j j ĭ ĭ y y i
К к k k k k k k k k k k
Л л l l l l l l l l l l
М м m m m m m m m m m m
Н н n n n n n n n n n n
О о o o o o o o o o o o
П п p p p p p p p p p p
Р р r r r r r r r r r r
С с s s s s s s s s s s
Т т t t t t t t t t t t
У у u u u u u u u u u u
Ф ф f f f f f f f f f f
Х х x (h) ch x h h kh kh kh kh kh
Ц ц c c  cz, c†  c c t͡s ts ts ts tc
Ч ч č č ch č č ch ch ch ch ch
Ш ш š š sh š š sh sh sh sh sh
Щ щ šč šč shh šč ŝ shch shch shch shch shch
Ъ ъ ʺ ʺ ʺ ʺ ʺ  ʺ‡  ʺ ˮ ʺ –
Ы ы y y y' y y y   ȳ (ui)**  y y y
Ь ь ʹ ʹ ʹ ʹ ʹ ʹ ʹ ʼ – –
Э э è ė eh è è ė é e e e
Ю ю ju ju yu ju û i͡u yu yu yu iu
Я я ja ja ya ja â i͡a ya ya ya ia

Obsolete letters
Cyrillic Scholarly ISO/R 9:1968 GOST 16876-71 1971 (2) UN (1987) ISO 9:1995; GOST 2002 (A) ALA-LC British Standard
Pre-1918 letters
І і i i   i, ih, i'††  ĭ ì ī
Ѳ ѳ f ḟ fh ḟ f̀ ḟ
Ѣ ѣ ě ě ye ě ě i͡e
Ѵ ѵ i ẏ yh ẏ ỳ ẏ
Pre-18th century letters
Ѕ ѕ dz – js – ẑ –
Ѯ ѯ ks – – – – –
Ѱ ѱ ps – – – – –
Ѡ ѡ ô, o – – – – –
Ѫ ѫ ǫ, u – – – ǎ –
Ѧ ѧ ę, ja – – – – –
Ѭ ѭ jǫ, ju – – – – –
Ѩ ѩ ję, ja – – – – –

Table notes


GOST 16876-71 and GOST 7.79-2000
† It is recommended to use c before i, e, y, and j but cz in all other cases.
†† In GOST 7.79-2000 Cyrillic і in Ukrainian
Ukrainian language
Ukrainian is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet....

 and Bulgarian
Bulgarian language
Bulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the...

 is always transliterated as Latin i as well as in Old Russian and Old Bulgarian texts where it is usually used before vowels. In the rare case that it falls before a consonant (for example, in the word мiръ), it is transliterated with an apostrophe i' .

ALA-LC
‡ ъ is not romanized at the end of a word.

British Standard
The endings -й, -ий, -ый may be simplified to -y.
** The British Library uses ы = ui

BGN/PCGN
* The digraph
Digraph
Digraph may refer to:* Digraph , a pair of characters used together to represent a single sound, such as "sh" in English* Typographical ligature, the joining of two letters as a single glyph, such as "æ"...

s ye and yë are used to indicate iotation
Iotation
Iotation is a linguistic phenomenon very characteristic of the Slavic languages. It should not be confused with palatalization, which is an entirely different process....

 at the beginning of a word and after vowels й, ъ, or ь.

Roman alphabet


In a second sense, the romanization of Russian may also indicate the introduction of a separate, independent instance of the Roman alphabet for writing the Russian language. Such an alphabet is not necessarily bound closely to the traditional Cyrillic orthography. The transition from Cyrillic to Latin has been proposed several times through history (especially during the Soviet era), but was never conducted on a large scale except for graphemic (such as the Volapuk
Volapuk encoding
Volapuk encoding or latinitsa is a slang term for rendering the letters of the Cyrillic script with Latin ones...

) and phonemic (such as translit
Translit
Translit is a method of encoding Cyrillic letters with Latin ones. The term is derived from transliteration, the system of replacing letters of one alphabet with letters of another....

) ad hoc transcriptions
Informal romanizations of Russian
Informal or ad hoc romanizations of Russian have been in use since the early days of electronic communications, starting from early e-mail and bulletin board systems...

 due to technological restrictions (such as ASCII
ASCII
The American Standard Code for Information Interchange is a character-encoding scheme based on the ordering of the English alphabet. ASCII codes represent text in computers, communications equipment, and other devices that use text...

, SMS
SMS
SMS is a form of text messaging communication on phones and mobile phones. The terms SMS or sms may also refer to:- Computer hardware :...

, IRC).

The most serous possibility of adoption of the Latin alphabet for the Russian language was discussed in 1929-30 during the campaign of latinisation of the languages of the USSR
Latinisation (USSR)
In the USSR, latinisation was the name of the campaign during the 1920s-1930s which aimed to replace traditional writing systems for numerous languages with the Latin alphabet and to create for languages had no writing. Almost all Turkic, Iranian, Uralic and several other languages were romanized,...

, when a special commission was created to propose a latinisation system for Russian.

See also

  • Romanization of Bulgarian
    Romanization of Bulgarian
    Romanization of Bulgarian is the practice of transliteration of text in the Bulgarian language from its conventional Cyrillic orthography into the Latin alphabet. Romanization can be used for various purposes, such as rendering of proper names and place names in foreign-language contexts, or for...

  • Romanization of Ukrainian
    Romanization of Ukrainian
    The romanization or Latinization of Ukrainian is the representation of the Ukrainian language using Latin letters. Ukrainian is natively written in its own Ukrainian alphabet, a variation of Cyrillic....

  • Romanization of Macedonian
  • Computer russification
    Computer russification
    In computing, Russification is the localization of computers and software, i.e., making the user interface of a computer and software to communicate in the Russian language and alphabet....

  • Volapuk encoding
    Volapuk encoding
    Volapuk encoding or latinitsa is a slang term for rendering the letters of the Cyrillic script with Latin ones...

  • Russian Chat Alphabet (Informal romanizations of Russian)
  • Faux Cyrillic
    Faux Cyrillic
    Faux Cyrillic, pseudo-Cyrillic, pseudo-Russian or faux Russian typography is the use of Cyrillic letters in Latin text to evoke the Soviet Union or Russia, regardless of whether the letters are phonetic matches. For example, R and N in RUSSIAN may be replaced by Cyrillic Я and И, giving "ЯUSSIAИ"...

  • Kyrillisches Alphabet (from the German Wikipedia) shows how to transliterate between Russian
    Russian language
    Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...

     and German
    German language
    German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

    .
  • GOST standards
    GOST
    GOST refers to a set of technical standards maintained by the Euro-Asian Council for Standardization, Metrology and Certification , a regional standards organization operating under the auspices of the Commonwealth of Independent States .All sorts of regulated standards are included, with examples...


External links