translikaatio

Translikaatio, also known as transliteration, is the process of converting text from one writing system into another while preserving the original spelling and orthographic features as much as possible. The term derives from Latin trans- "across" and littera "letter." Transliteration is distinct from translation, which changes language, and from transcription, which renders pronunciation rather than spellings.

Transliteration can be graphemic (letter-for-letter mapping) or phonemic (intended to reflect pronunciation). Graphemic transliterations aim for reversibility when standards are followed, though information such as diacritics may be lost or added to ensure readability. Phonemic transliteration tries to approximate sounds and may be less reversible, especially when different languages have varied phonologies.

Common standards and systems include ISO 9 for Cyrillic to Latin; ALA-LC and BGN/PCGN romanization tables; and schemes for Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic. For Japanese, systems such as Hepburn and Kunrei-shiki are used; for Chinese, pinyin is the dominant romanization; for Korean, the Revised Romanization is standard. Each language may have multiple systems, with trade-offs between phonetic accuracy, readability, and reversibility.

Applications for transliteration are wide and include library catalogs, passport and visa documentation, academic publishing, and search engine indexing. In computing, transliteration supports cross-script search and data interoperability, enabling users to retrieve information across different scripts and languages.

Limitations include the inability to capture all diacritics, tones, or language-specific nuances; some scripts lack a straightforward one-to-one mapping; and reversible transliteration may require context or auxiliary information.