This template is used to mark up text that has beentransliterated orromanised from a non-Latin alphabet script to Latin alphabet script.
This template should only be used for the transliterations of non-Latin scripts; for non-English language text displayed in its native script (such as Greek, Cyrillic and Arabic),{{lang}} should be used, which tags non-transliterated text (written in original script). Transliteration is often used alongside that template, to allow non-readers of the script to interpret the text.
This template adds atooltip label naming the transliteration scheme, and renders text initalics by default.
It also displays text in an appropriate font; romanisations marked up in{{lang}} may display in fonts designed for that language's native text, whereas the transliteration template displays text in the same font as the rest of the article.
Some languages, such asChinese, have more than one style of transliteration (such asWade–Giles,pinyin, etc). This template can be used for these different transliteration schemes, though Wikipedia has a number oflanguage-specific templates, some of which support more than one transliteration styles in their parameters, that may be better suited for marking up transliterations.
Example
The following code tags a Ukrainian name and its transliteration according to the Ukrainian National scheme.
This template is intended to unify all "transliteration" templates, such as{{IAST}} and{{ISOtranslit}}. These templates are still usable, but they just transclude or are redirected back to {{transl}}. For example, (e.g.{{IAST|saṃskṛtam}} is a shortcut for{{transliteration|sa|IAST|saṃskṛtam}}. Other transliteration templates that once existed, such as{{ArabDIN}}, are now handled natively by this template:{{transliteration|ar|DIN|...}}).
This template is kept separate from{{lang}} to address formatting issues (via CSS classes) and identification of transliteration schemes used. Ultimately, if these concerns are smartly addressed in the CSS file and/or in{{lang}}, using{{transliteration|xx|...}} should be equivalent to using{{lang|xx-Latn|...}}.
Usage
There are two ways of using this template: with or without specifying thetransliteration scheme used:
two parameters, withISO 639 language code:{{transliteration|ar|al-Khwarizmi}} means that "al-Khwarizmi" is a transliteration from the Arabic in a loose or unspecified scheme.
two parameters, withISO 15924 script code:{{transliteration|Ogam|MAQI}} means that "MAQI" transliterates anOgham inscription without specifying the language. Potentially useful when writing systems themselves are under discussion, e.g.{{transliteration|Cyrl|š}}, not{{transliteration|cu|š}} or{{transliteration|ru|š}} when discussing the letterШ.
three parameters, withISO 639 language code:{{transliteration|ar|DIN|al-Ḫawārizmī}} / {{transliteration|ar|ALA|al-Khawārizmī}} the second parameter specifies the scheme used (DIN vs. ALA).
three parameters, withISO 15924 script code:{{transliteration|Arab|DIN|Ḫ}} vs {{transliteration|Arab|ALA|Kh}} forﺥ.
There is no need to add italic markup ('') to transliteration templates. Proper nouns – the names of people and places – are typically not italicized, and as such should use|italic=no to suppress the default italicization of Latin scripts.
Codes for supported transliteration schemes can be seen by viewing the source ofModule:Lang/data – thetranslit_title_table data-structure lists for each such code the corresponding transliteration schemes. These may vary by language – e.g. code "ISO" means schemeISO 233 for Arabic butISO 11940 for Thai.
In order to apply a style to all text marked as transliteration, use a CSS selector that chooses all text withtransliteration in the title attribute (tooltip). For instance, if you add the following toyour common.css, all transliterations will be coloredteal:
ISO 639 language code, possibly with an ISO 15924 script code
Example
hi (Hindi), sr-Cyrl (Serbian written in the Cyrillic script), und-Hani (an undetermined language written with Chinese characters), mis (an unknown language)
Line
required
Text, OR transliteration scheme
2
Latin-alphabet transliterated text, or, optionally, transliteration scheme (e.g., bgn/pcgn) then 3rd parameter will be text
String
required
Text
3
Latin-alphabet transliterated text (required if a transliteration scheme is entered above)
String
suggested
Italics
italicsiitalic
Allows for control over whether transliterated text is italicized. It is useful to disable italics in cases like proper names.
Unicode uses the "Property Value Alias" (Alias) as the script-name. These Alias names are part of Unicode and are published informatively next to ISO 15924. An alias script name may be used in a character name:Palm, Palmyrene →U+10860𐡠PALMYRENE LETTER ALEPH.
