Few people know that if you need to 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 at all the same and can be used in different situations.
Now transliteration is used most often on the Internet, in the absence of a Russian-language layout, or when preparing documents that require writing names and surnames in English. But before we learn the rules of Russian transliteration, let's find out what the concept itself means.
Concept
Transliteration is the transfer of the letters of the alphabet of one language, the letters of the alphabet of another language. The rule of transliteration must be observed 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 used most often on the Internet. Users may come across a post written in Latin letters on the forum. This is usually done by those who do not have the Russian layout.
Unfortunately, not everything written like this is clear. Especially if a person is not familiar with the letters of Latin or English at all. But do not forget thatthe official transliteration rules are just designed to make the information 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 rules for transliterating first and last names.
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 it was necessary to compile an alphabetical index for simplified search and catalogs. Then the development of transliteration rules for most languages began.
Of course, it is clear that the transliteration rule in Russian is not so important. But in other languages, you often have to use software that helps translate, for example, Latin letters into hieroglyphs. Agree that it is difficult to do this using a standard keyboard. And in the case of the Japanese language, it will have to have huge functionality and an impressive number of keys.
Transliteration for Japanese is necessary because it is impossible to translate one or another word into English unambiguously. This is due to a different number of sounds, and with a certain similarity in pronunciation, as well as with other facts.
Therefore, in order not to look for the rule of international transliteration, on the Internet you can find special onlinetransliteration programs. It is worth noting that many current Russian-language services build a special tab that allows you to automatically translate one letter into another.
Common rules
As already mentioned, transliteration rules in Russia do not have strict provisions. Therefore, for example, for the letter “I”, several spellings in Latin letters can be used: “ya”, “ja”, “ia”, “a”, for “zh” you can use “zh”, “j”, “z ", "g". But there are other letters that have only one spelling, "o" - "o", "r" - "r", "p" - "r", etc.
Gamer 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 writing. It so happened that this principle is used to a greater extent in the world of gamers. Players like to playfully use nicknames written in Russian words in English. This is due to the fact that earlier, when the eSports industry was not so developed, it was not possible to write a Russian nickname. Therefore, the guys invented gamer transliteration.
It eliminated the sound similarity of characters, but visually everyone could easily read the word. It is worth noting that gamer transliteration itself is difficult to create your own masterpieces, although it is easy to understand. There must be a creative vein here. Using this option is extremely inconvenient in SMS messages and emails.
Latin version
There is a certain standard that is responsible for the transliteration of Cyrillic 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 diacritical marks, the second is a combination of Latin letters. The first option uses letters that are not found on the standard keyboard, so its use will most likely 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" as "shh". It is worth noting that the choice of one of the two versions of this standard will not depend on your mood, but on the information agencies. It is they who 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 has undergone minor changes. In turn, the first GOST has served since 1973.
International
The rules for international transliteration were developed in 1951 andentered into force five years later. The Institute of Linguistics was engaged in the formation of provisions. This format of rules is quite complicated and, despite its similarity with the previous ones, has some clarifications. For example, the transliteration of the letter "e" can 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 here and they should be taken into account. Now that the GOST 7.79-2000 standard has come into force, the named system of rules is not applied, although it has a fairly simple form.
Russian passport
If you decide to apply for a foreign passport, you will have to carefully check the correct spelling of your name and surname in Latin letters. The authenticity of the document will depend on this.
Not all citizens pay attention to how their name is written in Latin letters. When the question of obtaining a foreign passport arises, problems immediately arise that could have been avoided. Those who have encountered this for the first time are surprised at the ridiculous spelling of their name in Latin letters, which differs from the English version.
Don't get scared or panic right away. No one invented 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 bylegislation.
Of course, from time to time in each country there are changes in such documents. Therefore, so that people do not get wiser and do not rack their brains, this task is entrusted to artificial intelligence. The computer translates the first and last name so that there are no questions.
It is worth noting that the rules for transliteration of surnames and names in Russia for a foreign passport were last changed in 2015. Prior to that, the changes concerned the named topic in 2010. Interestingly, different departments of the FMS used different provisions. And since 2015, the international standard has been in force.
New changes
Recent changes have affected only a couple of letters "y" and "ts", now they are translated as "I" and "TS", respectively. The meaning for the letter "e" - "e" also appeared. 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 novice webmaster and faced with the problem of URL translation, you should pay attention to what you need to know in this case. It is important to note that in this case it is absolutely undesirable to use the rules of the so-called vulgar transliteration. This is due to the fact that when generating an address, it is worth achieving maximum reliability and accuracy necessary for your site to be correctly recognized by search engines.
Therefore, to translate a URL, it is better to use international transliteration rules. Just remember that you have a limit incharacters: [0-9], [a-z], [A-Z], [_], [-]. If other characters are used, the address may not be displayed correctly.
Of course, many website builders have long ago saved their users from manual changes and difficult decisions. Now they do all the translit automatically. In the absence of an embedded system, you can use extensions.
If other difficulties arise, and you do not know the rules for transliterating first or last names, the Internet is full of Russian-language sites that provide online translation.
