Transliacija

Transliacija is the process of converting text from one writing system to another, preserving as much of the original form and pronunciation as feasible. It contrasts with translation, which renders meaning in another language; transliteration focuses on scripts and graphemes rather than semantics. The term is used in some languages to refer to transliteration, and in others may be applied more broadly to script conversion.

Common objectives include producing readable names in foreign scripts, enabling indexing and search across languages, and aiding learners and scholars. Methods rely on established romanization or transliteration schemes, which map each character or grapheme to a corresponding symbol in the target script. Standards include ISO 9 for Cyrillic to Latin, ALA-LC and BGN/PCGN romanization schemes, and Greek ISO 843 among others. For Japanese, multiple systems exist (Hepburn, Kunrei-shiki). Transliacija can be direct, where the mapping preserves graphemes, or phonemic, aimed at representing pronunciation.

In practice, transliacija is essential in libraries, cartography, passports, digital platforms, and linguistic research. Software tools perform transliteration using rule-based, statistical, or neural approaches, and Unicode-based normalization helps handle combining marks and diacritics. Challenges include multiple competing standards, ambiguity due to homographs, loss of diacritics, and discrepancies among languages with different phonotactics.

History notes: transliteration has ancient roots in cartography and scholarship, matured with standardized schemes during the 19th and 20th centuries, and continues to evolve with digital typography.