Transliteration maps words from one alphabet to another, making languages more accessible. It is not the same as transcription, which represents sounds. Standardization is attempted, but variations occur. Transliteration is not translation, which requires knowledge of languages.
Transliteration is a process where words from one alphabet are represented in another alphabet. There are a number of rules governing transliteration between different alphabets, designed to ensure that it is uniform, allowing readers to understand the transliterations clearly. Transliteration is not exactly the same as transcription, although the two are very similar; in transcription, people represent sounds with letters from another alphabet, while in transliteration, people try to map letters onto each other, sometimes with accents or other clues to suggest particular sounds.
Many cultures around the world use different scripts to represent their languages. By transliterating, people can make their languages more accessible to people who don’t understand their writings. For example, for someone who knows the Roman alphabet, the name محمد is incomprehensible. However, when transliterated as Muhammad, readers of the Roman alphabet understand it to mean the Muslim prophet Muhammad.
There are a number of reasons for using transliteration, but most of them involve the transmission of information between cultures. For example, on a menu in a Thai restaurant, ข้าวราดแกง might be written as khao rad gang for English speakers, so they can read what they’re ordering, even if they don’t understand it. Transliteration is also used in language education so that people can understand how words are pronounced without having to learn the alphabet as well. Scholarly articles can also use transliteration to discuss words in various languages without forcing readers to learn an assortment of alphabets. This is especially common with obscure scripts like Linear B, which can only be read by a handful of people.
People try to use standardized tendencies when transliterating so that the transliterations are uniform, but that doesn’t always happen. Muhammad, for example, is spelled in a variety of ways, including Mohammad and Muhammad. This can be confusing, as changes in transliteration change how a word sounds when spoken aloud. Good transliteration also employs accent marks to guide people and may have unusual combinations of letters in an attempt to convey unique sounds.
Transliteration is not the same as translation, a process in which words are made meaningful to speakers of other languages. For example, the popular Arabic food transliterated as khubz arabi is better known as “pita bread” by English speakers. Translation requires knowledge of languages, the transliteration of which is more about alphabets.
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