Alternative Russian-Latin Transliteration

Abstract

An alternative transliteration of Russian letters in Latin is proposed, including only four digraphs, which differs favorably from previous ones in using all 26 letters of the Latin alphabet (plus an apostrophe) and in lacking diacritical marks above the letters and allows the Russian text of any complexity to be transmitted in Latin letters (and vice versa) with the maximum simplicity extremely unambiguous.

Keywords—alphabet, transliteration, digraphs, diacritical marks.

Full text

International Journal of Innovative Research in Computer Science & Technology (IJIRCST)
ISSN: 2347-5552, Volume-7, Issue-1, January 2019
Copyright © 2019. Innovative Research Publication. All Rights Reserve 6
Alternative Russian-Latin Transliteration
Michael M. Silaev
Abstract—An alternative transliteration of Russian
letters in Latin is proposed, including only four
digraphs, which differs favorably from previous ones
in using all 26 letters of the Latin alphabet (plus an
apostrophe) and in lacking diacritical marks above the
letters and allows the Russian text of any complexity
to be transmitted in Latin letters (and vice versa) with
the maximum simplicity extremely unambiguous.
Keywords—alphabet, transliteration, digraphs,
diacritical marks.
I. NEW RUSSIAN-LATIN TRANSLITERATION
SYSTEM
The problem of accurate, full-fledged transmission of
Russian texts, documentary and legal materials of the
Cyrillic script in Latin script on global telegraph and
Internet information communications does not lose its
relevance. The proposed transliteration of Russian letters
in Latin favorably differs from the totality preceding the
use of only four double letters (digraphs) instead of seven
or nine and one polygraph (to represent the letter щ), as
in other transliteration systems (see reviews on this
subject in collections [1–3]), as well as the use of all 26
letters of the modern Latin alphabet and the absence of
accents over letters, the role of which in the case of two
letters e''(e) and e'(e) is performed by an apostrophe,
unlike diacritics, is always present together with Latin
letters in international telegraph and print inventory and
on a standard computer keyboard, on which there are no
letters of the Russian alphabet abroad. The
correspondence of Russian letters to Latin is given in the
Table below.
Alternative Russian-Latin transliteration1
ABC
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
№
Russian
Latin
а
а
б
b
в
v
г
g
д
d
е
е
ë
е''
ж
j
1
2
Russian
Latin
з
z
и
i
й
y
к
k
л
l
м
m
н
n
о
о
3
4
Russian
Latin
п
p
р
r
c
s
т
t
у
u
ф
f
х
h
ц
c
5
6
Russian
Latin
ч
ch
ш
sh
щ
q
ы
w
ь
x
э
e'
ю
yu
я
ya
7
8
Notes: 1Digits – the coordinates of the letters. 2In the case of transfer of out of text in a row of individual letters ъъ they are
separated by a space: ''. The apostrophe separating the consonant and vowel letters in foreign surnames in the Cyrillic text
can be transmitted by a double apostrophe to distinguish it from the letter ъ during retrainsliteration (for example, д'Эстен–
d''E'sten). 3Letters of the old spelling decimal i, yat ѣ, theta ѳ, and izhitsa ѵ can be noted in the Latin text by means of a
circumflex, respectively, as ˆi, ˆe, ˆf, and ˆy.
For example, the name of this Table: Alxternativnaya russko-latinskaya transliteraciya. Or: часть–chastx, Цхалтубо–
C'haltubo; шоры–shorw, сход–s'hod; это–e'to, мэр–me'r; ещë –eqe'', объëм–ob'e''m; дюйм–dyuym, Гуйус–Guy'us;
Майя–Mayya, Майами–May'ami; the pronoun я is ya, or Y; the letter ъ – '.
Manuscript Received January 07, 2019.
Michael M. Silaev, Lomonosov Moscow State
University, VorobievyGory, Moscow, 119991, Russia,
(e-mail: mmsilaev@rc.chem.msu.ru).
In this transliteration, the apostrophe ' acts as the letter
ъ only if it separates the consonant and vowel, including
the “semivowel” y(Cyrillic й), letters (but not y(й) and
vowel, vowel and consonant, two vowels or consonants)2.
An apostrophe acts as an apostrophe if it divides a vowel
(except for e, with no space after it) and a consonant or a
digit, two consonants (except c'h and s'h), a consonant
and a digit (but not the y(й) and a vowel). The apostrophe

Alternative Russian-Latin Transliteration
Copyright © 2019. Innovative Research Publication. All Rights Reserve 7
divides the letters in the letter combinations c'h, s'h, y'u,
and y'a, coinciding with digraphs, if each letter in them
acts as an independent phonetic unit3. Thus, the
apostrophe in this system of transliteration is performed,
taking into account its previously indicated role as a
modifier, or diacritic, with the letter е, four regulated
functions at once.
As can be seen from the Table, in the alternative
transliteration system there are only four digraphs (ch, sh,
yu, and ya) and there are no diacritics, which can serve as
a demonstration that the Latin alphabet is no less
adequate to the Russian language than the Latin itself
(there are often two digraphs in it, and vowels are often
supplied with diacritical marks), and even less adequate
to English (with at least nine two-letter designations of
individual sounds) and especially German or French, in
which, respectively, from six to 10 digraphs, one by one a
trigraph and used from three to 13 letters with diacritical
marks [4].
The presented new Russian–Latin transliteration
alphabet, which for brevity (and by analogy with the
Cyrillic alphabet) can be allow yourself in everyday life
to call, in view of the name of the author, Michaelic,
makes it possible to write in Russian in Latin as freely as
Cyrillic (as, for example, in the case of the Serbian-
Croatian language, in which two graphics –Cyrillic in the
Serbian option and Latin in Croatian).
The question of whether the new alphabet (through
cyberspace, for example, which uses Latin symbols) will
press the Cyrillic alphabet in its modern form,
sequestered after 1917, when several letters were
removed from it, including “yat – ѣ”, which carried the
cross over the Russian line, remains open.
If we recall that the civil alphabet in Cyrillic, in turn,
arose at the beginning of the XVIII century by converging
with the Latin font (Antiqua) of its former church Slavic
form (and also excluding a number of letters from it), and
the latter, in its turn, ousted from the Slavic writings a
graphically more complex Glagolitic alphabet, in such a
retrospective, the paths of the alphabets seem to be
inscrutable, and free competition between them is a
guarantee of their improvement in development.
II. CONCLUSIONS
The presented alternative Russian–Latin transliteration
allows you to transmit Russian text of any complexity in
Latin letters (and vice versa) with maximum simplicity
(and this is the main criterion for writing) is exclusively
unambiguously (which compensates for the phonetic
inconsistency in the interpretation of the letters щ–q, ы–
w, and ь–x) and can become parallel Russian spelling on
a Latin basis in those sometimes vitally important cases
when the letters of the Russian alphabet cannot be used.
REFERENCES
[1]. Uspensky, V.A.,“To the problem of transliteration of
Russian texts in Latin letters”,Scientific and Technical
Information, Ser. 2, Information Processes and Systems,
1967, no. 7, pp. 12–20.
[2]. Reformatsky A.A.,“On the standardization of
transliteration in Latin letters of Russian texts”, Ibid.,
1972, no. 10, pp. 32–36.
[3]. Beloozerov V.N., Radkovsky G.N.,
KosarskayaYu.P., “Practical transliteration of the Russian
text in the Latin alphabet”, Ibid., 1997, no. 12, pp. 28–34.
[4]. Gilyarevsky R.S., Grivnin V.S., “An Identifier for
World Languages from Their Writing”, Ed. Prof. G.P.
Serdyuchenko, 3rd Ed., rev. and add. [in Russian],
Moscow: Nauka, 1965, 375 pp.