Scientific transliteration of Cyrillic is an international method fortransliteration of text from theCyrillic script to theLatin script (romanization). This system is most often seen inlinguistics publications onSlavic languages.
Scientific transliteration, also calledacademic,linguistic,international, orscholarly transliteration, was first introduced in 1898 as part of the standardization process for thePreußische Instruktionen (PI; a library cataloging system used in German-speaking countries) in 1899. Despite the name, "scientific transliteration" has no connection to thescientific method or modern science[dubious –discuss]; the wordscience before the 20th century usually referred toknowledge in general, rather than referring tonatural orapplied sciences in specific.[1]
The scientific transliteration system is roughly asphonemic as is the orthography of the language transliterated. The deviations are with щ where the transliteration makes clear that two phonemes are involved, and џ, where it fails to represent the (monophonemic) affricate with a single letter. The transliteration system is based on theGaj's Latin alphabet used inSerbo-Croatian, in which each letter corresponds directly to a Cyrillic letter inBosnian,Montenegrin andSerbian official standards, and was heavily based on the earlierCzech alphabet. The Cyrillic letter х, representing the sound [x] as inBach, was romanizedh in Serbo-Croatian, but in German-speaking countries the native digraphch was used instead.[2] It was codified in the 1898Prussian Instructions for libraries, orPreußische Instruktionen (PI), which were adopted in Central Europe and Scandinavia. Scientific transliteration can also be used to romanize the earlyGlagolitic alphabet, which has a close correspondence to Cyrillic.[citation needed]
Scientific transliteration is often adapted to serve as a phonetic alphabet.[3]
Scientific transliteration was the basis for theISO 9 transliteration standard. While linguistic transliteration tries to preserve the original language'spronunciation to a certain degree, the latest version of the ISO standard (ISO 9:1995) has abandoned this concept, which was still found inISO/R 9:1968 and is now restricted to a one-to-one mapping of letters. It thus allows for unambiguous reverse transliteration into the original Cyrillic text and is language-independent.
The previous official Soviet romanization system,GOST 16876-71, is also based on scientific transliteration but used Latinh for Cyrillic х instead of Latinx orssh andsth for Cyrillic Щ, and had a number of other differences. Most countries using Cyrillic script now have adoptedGOST 7.79 instead, which is not the same as ISO 9 but close to it.
Representing all of the necessary diacritics on computers requiresUnicode,Latin-2,Latin-4, orLatin-7 encoding.
| Cyrillic | scientific transliteration | PI[4] | ISO 9 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Church Slavonic | Bulgarian | Russian | Belarusian | Ukrainian | Carpathian Rusyn | Serbian | Macedonian | |||
| А а | a | a | a | a | a | a | a | a | a | a |
| Б б | b | b | b | b | b | b | b | b | b | b |
| В в | v | v | v | v | v | v | v | v | v | v |
| Г г | g | g | g | h | h | h | g | g | g (hBEUK) | g |
| Ґ ґ | g[a] | g | g | ġ | g̀ (gBEUK) | |||||
| Д д | d | d | d | d | d | d | d | d | d | d |
| Ѓ ѓ | ǵ (ģ) | ǵ | ||||||||
| Ђ ђ | đ (dj) | ď | đ | |||||||
| Е е | e | e | e | e | e | e | e | e | e | |
| Ё ё | ë | ë | jo | ë | ë | |||||
| Є є | e | je | je | je | ê | |||||
| Ж ж | ž | ž | ž | ž | ž | ž | ž | ž | ž | ž |
| З з | z | z | z | z | z | z | z | z | z | z |
| Ѕ ѕ | ʒ (dz) | dz | ẑ | |||||||
| И и | i | i | i | y | y (î) | i | i | i | i | |
| I і | i | i[a] | i | i | i | ī | ì | |||
| Ї ї | i | ji (ï) | ji | ï | ||||||
| Й й | j | j | j | j | j | j | j | |||
| Ј ј | j | j | j | ǰ | ||||||
| К к | k | k | k | k | k | k | k | k | k | |
| Л л | l | l | l | l | l | l | l | l | l | l |
| Љ љ | lj (ļ/ľ) | lj (ļ/ľ) | ľ | ľ | ||||||
| М м | m | m | m | m | m | m | m | m | m | m |
| Н н | n | n | n | n | n | n | n | n | n | n |
| Њ њ | nj (ň/ń/ņ) | nj (ň/ń/ņ) | ń | ň | ||||||
| О о | o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o |
| П п | p | p | p | p | p | p | p | p | p | p |
| Р р | r | r | r | r | r | r | r | r | r | r |
| С с | s | s | s | s | s | s | s | s | s | s |
| Т т | t | t | t | t | t | t | t | t | t | t |
| Ќ ќ | ḱ (ķ) | ḱ | ||||||||
| Ћ ћ | ǵ | ć | ć | ć | ||||||
| У у | u | u | u | u | u | u | u | u | u | |
| ОУ оу | u | |||||||||
| Ў ў | ŭ (w) | ŭ | ||||||||
| Ф ф | f | f | f | f | f | f | f | f | f | f |
| Х х | x | h | x (ch) | x (ch) | x (ch) | ch | h | ch | h | |
| Ц ц | c | c | c | c | c | c | c | c | c | c |
| Ч ч | č | č | č | č | č | č | č | č | č | č |
| Џ џ | dž (ģ) | dž | ǵ | d̂ | ||||||
| Ш ш | š | š | š | š | š | š | š | š | š | š |
| Щ щ | št | št | šč, ŝ | šč | šč | šč (štBG) | ŝ | |||
| Ъ ъ | ъ (ǔ) | ǎ | ʺ | ʺ | -[b] (ŭBG) | ʺ | ||||
| Ы ы | y (ū) | y | y | y[a] | ŷ (y) | y | y | |||
| Ь ь | ь (ǐ) | j | ʹ | ʹ | ʹ | ʹ | ʹ | ʹ | ||
| Ѣ ѣ | ě | ě[a] | ě[a] | ě[a] | ě[a] | ě[a] | ě | ě | ||
| Э э | è | è | ė | è | ||||||
| Ю ю | ju | ju | ju, û | ju | ju | ju | ju | û | ||
| Я я | ja | ja, â | ja | ja | ja | ja | â | |||
| ʼ | ʼ | |||||||||
| Ѡ ѡ | o, ô | |||||||||
| Ѧ ѧ | ę | |||||||||
| Ѩ ѩ | ję | |||||||||
| Ѫ ѫ | ǫ | ă[a] | ă | ǎ | ||||||
| Ѭ ѭ | jǫ | jă[a] | ||||||||
| Ѯ ѯ | ks | |||||||||
| Ѱ ѱ | ps | |||||||||
| Ѳ ѳ | th (θ) | f[a] | f[a] | f[a] | ḟ | f̀ | ||||
| Ѵ ѵ | ü | (i)[a] | (i)[a] | (i)[a] | ẏ | ỳ | ||||
| Ѥ ѥ | je | |||||||||
| Ꙗ ꙗ | ja | |||||||||
( ) Letters in parentheses are older or alternative transliterations. Ukrainian and Belarusian apostrophe are not transcribed. The early Cyrillic letterkoppa (Ҁ, ҁ) was used only for transliterating Greek and itsnumeric value and was thus omitted. Prussian Instructions and ISO 9:1995 are provided for comparison.
Unicode encoding is:
Italics indicate that the language no longer uses Cyrillic | |||||||||||||||||
| Cyrillic alphabets |
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| Cyrillization of | |||||||||||||||||
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