transliteratsiooni

Transliteratsiooni is a process of converting text from one script to another, aiming to represent the sounds of the original language as closely as possible. It is distinct from translation, which focuses on conveying the meaning of the text. Transliteration is primarily concerned with phonetic equivalence, ensuring that a reader familiar with the target script can approximate the pronunciation of the original word or phrase.

Different systems of transliteration exist for various language pairs, often based on established scholarly conventions or international standards. These systems typically assign specific characters or combinations of characters in the target script to represent the individual sounds or graphemes of the source script. For instance, the Cyrillic letter 'ж' might be transliterated into the Latin alphabet as 'zh'. The goal is to provide a consistent and predictable mapping.

Transliteration is widely used in various fields, including linguistics, geography, library science, and in everyday contexts such as rendering foreign names or terms in a different alphabet. It plays a crucial role in enabling communication and access to information across linguistic and script boundaries. While precise phonetic representation is the ideal, practical transliteration systems may sometimes involve compromises due to the limitations of the target script or the need for simplicity.