Transliteration / Romanization of names:
(updated 3 december 2006)
With names not written in roman characters, there is always a problem of how to deal with
the transliteration of names. There are always several ways and which one do you choose?
I try to give here an overview of the way I romanize names. (i.e. when I know the original name)
Cyrillic Korean Japanese Chinese Links
Cyrillic
For the cyrillic script the romanization can be done by using a simple table.
I don't use the ISO table, but I used the following table:
(not complete, but the ones I used are in here. ISO means ISO 9:1995)
| Capital |
А |
Б |
В |
Г |
Д |
Е |
Ж |
З |
И |
Й |
К |
Л |
М |
Н |
О |
П |
Р |
С |
Т |
У |
Ф |
Х |
Ц |
Ч |
Ш |
Щ |
Ъ |
Ы |
Ь |
Э |
Ю |
Я |
Ё |
| Small |
а |
б |
в |
г |
д |
е |
ж |
з |
и |
й |
к |
л |
м |
н |
о |
п |
р |
с |
т |
у |
ф |
х |
ц |
ч |
ш |
щ |
ъ |
ы |
ь |
э |
ю |
я |
ё |
| ISO |
a |
b |
v |
g |
d |
e |
ž |
z |
i |
j |
k |
l |
m |
n |
o |
p |
r |
s |
t |
u |
f |
h |
c |
č |
š |
ŝ |
" |
y |
' |
è |
û |
â |
ë |
| I use |
a |
b |
v |
g |
d |
e |
zj |
z |
i |
j |
k |
l |
m |
n |
o |
p |
r |
s |
t |
u |
f |
ch |
ts |
tsj |
sj |
stsj |
- |
y |
-/j |
e |
ju |
ja |
jo |
Some Ukrainian additions:
| Capital |
Є |
І |
Ґ |
Ї |
| Small |
є |
i |
ґ |
ї |
| ISO |
ê |
ì |
g̀ |
ï |
| I use |
ê |
ì |
g̀ |
ï |
Notes:
The cyrillic character е has in many cases a je pronunciation, e.g. as first character of a word
or after a vowel. I chose to always replace е by e.
e.g.: Николай Гуляев -> Nikolaj Guljaev (and not Nikolaj Guljajev)
Note that some transliteration of previous Soviet-Union names look different now using the Ukrainian names.
e.g.: Вера Брындзей (Russian/USSR) -> Вiра Бриндзей (Ukrainian) -> Vìra Brindzej (and not Vera Bryndzej)
Korean
In Korea there are two sets of characters, the hanja and hangeul. The hanja characters are the ones
'imported' from the Chinese. The hangeul (or choseoneogeul in North Korea) is a phonetic system
consisting of jamo which can be romanized using the following tables.
These tables are based on the McCune-Reischauer romanization.
Vowel table:
| Korean |
ㅏ |
ㅑ |
ㅓ |
ㅕ |
ㅗ |
ㅛ |
ㅜ |
ㅠ |
ㅡ |
ㅣ |
ㅘ |
ㅝ |
ㅐ |
ㅔ |
ㅚ |
ㅟ |
ㅢ |
ㅙ |
ㅞ |
ㅒ |
ㅖ |
| MR |
a |
ya |
ŏ |
yŏ |
o |
yo |
u |
yu |
ŭ |
i |
wa |
wŏ |
ae |
e |
oe |
wi |
ŭi |
wae |
we |
yae |
ye |
| I use |
a |
ya |
eo |
yeo |
o |
yo |
u |
yu |
eu |
i |
wa |
weo |
ae |
e |
oe |
wi |
ui |
wae |
we |
yae |
ye |
For the consonants the pronunciation depends on the consonants following or preceding it.
Simplified consonant table (For most proper names this table is sufficient):
Final
Initial |
ㅇ |
ㄱ |
ㄴ |
ㄷ |
ㄹ |
ㅁ |
ㅂ |
ㅅ |
ㅈ |
ㅊ |
ㅋ |
ㅌ |
ㅍ |
ㅎ |
| * |
K |
N |
T |
(R) |
M |
P |
S |
CH |
CH' |
K' |
T' |
P' |
H |
| ㄱ |
K |
G |
KK |
NGN |
KT |
NGN |
NGM |
KP |
KS |
KCH |
KCH' |
KK' |
KT' |
KP' |
KH |
| ㄴ |
N |
N |
N'G |
NN |
ND |
LL |
NM |
NB |
NS |
NJ |
NCH' |
NK' |
NT' |
NP' |
NH |
| ㄹ |
L |
R |
LG |
LL |
LT |
LL |
LM |
LB |
LS |
LCH |
LCH' |
LK' |
LT' |
LP' |
RH |
| ㅁ |
M |
M |
MG |
MN |
MD |
MN |
MM |
MB |
MS |
MJ |
MCH' |
MK' |
MT' |
MP' |
MH |
| ㅂ |
P |
B |
PK |
MN |
PT |
MN |
MM |
PP |
PS |
PCH |
PCH' |
PK' |
PT' |
PP' |
PH |
| ㅇ |
NG |
NG |
NGG |
NGN |
NGD |
NGN |
NGM |
NGB |
NGS |
NGJ |
NGCH' |
NGK' |
NGT' |
NGP' |
NGH |
The modernization of this system have been used since 2000 and are introduced to mainly simplify
romanization for foreigners. The main changes are the elimination of the diacritics (', ŏ and ŭ)
and not to follow the exact pronunciation anymore, but using a more one-to-one romanization.
E.g. using this new system.
ㅈ becomes J and ㅊ becomes CH.
(조민희 becomes Jo Min-hyi instead of Cho Min-hŭi)
In the new situation the same (abbreviated) table looks easier:
Final
Initial |
ㅇ |
ㄱ |
ㄴ |
ㄷ |
ㄹ |
ㅁ |
ㅂ |
ㅅ |
ㅈ |
ㅊ |
ㅋ |
ㅌ |
ㅍ |
ㅎ |
| * |
G |
N |
D |
(R) |
M |
B |
S |
J |
CH |
K |
T |
P |
H |
| ㄱ |
K |
G |
KG |
NGN |
KD |
NGN |
NGM |
KB |
KS |
KJ |
KCH |
KK |
KT |
KP |
KH |
| ㄴ |
N |
N |
NG |
NN |
ND |
NN,LL |
NM |
NB |
NS |
NJ |
NCH |
NK |
NT |
NP |
NH |
| ㄹ |
L |
R |
LG |
LL |
LD |
LL |
LM |
LB |
LS |
LJ |
LCH |
LK |
LT |
LP |
LH |
| ㅁ |
M |
M |
MG |
MN |
MD |
MN |
MM |
MB |
MS |
MJ |
MCH |
MK |
MT |
MP |
MH |
| ㅂ |
P |
B |
PG |
MN |
PD |
MN |
MM |
PB |
PS |
PJ |
PCH |
PK |
PT |
PP |
PH |
| ㅇ |
NG |
NG |
NGG |
NGN |
NGD |
NGN |
NGM |
NGB |
NGS |
NGJ |
NGCH |
NGK |
NGT |
NGP |
NGH |
The following is the table of the 20 most common Korean names:
Hangeul [Hanja]
21.6% 김 [金] Kim (Khym, Kimm, Ghim)
14.8% 이 [李] Li (Lee, Yi, Rhee)
8.5% 박 [朴] Pak (Park, Bhak)
4.7% 최 [崔] Choi (Choe, Chwe)
4.4% 정 [鄭,丁] Jeong (Chung, Jung, Chong)
2.1% 강 [姜,康] Kang (Khang)
2.1% 조 [趙,曺] Jo (Cho)
2.1% 윤 [尹] Yun (Yoon)
2.0% 장 [張] Jang (Chang)
1.7% 임 [林] Lim (Yim, Im, Em)
1.6% 한 [韓] Han (Hahn)
1.5% 오 [吳] Oh (Ho)
1.5% 신 [申] Sin (Shin, Sinn)
1.5% 서 [徐] Seo (Suh)
1.4% 권 [權] Kweon (Kwon)
1.4% 황 [黃] Hwang
1.4% 안 [安] An (Ahn)
1.4% 송 [宋] Song
1.3% 유 [柳] Yu
1.1% 홍 [洪] Hong
Japanese
The Japanese consists of as many as 3 'alphabets': The katakana (phonetic used
for foreign expressions), the hiragana (phonetic) and the kanji (ideograms),
but also the romaji (latin characters) can be used together.
Kanji
The kanji signs are pictograms developed from concepts and have no relation with
there pronunciation. Also the signs have different types of 'readings', the
'on', 'kun' and 'nanori' readings.
Most Japanese names are depicted in kanji signs and should be read using the
nanori reading (means name reading). For that I use a program called JWPce,
which can convert the names into hiragana and in latin characters.
This program uses the Hepburn romanization, in detail a so-called wapuro style in which
long vowels are written as follows:
'ou' means 'oo'; 'ei' means 'ee' and others are just doubled: 'uu' 'ii', 'aa'
Generally long vowels are not doubled at all when transliterated:
東京 can be transliterated as Toukyou.
(other ways are Tōkyō, Tôkyô, Tokyo, Tookyoo).
In many cases there are several nanori readings for kanji signs.
E.g. 東健太郎 is Higashi Kentaro(u), but is sometimes referred as Azuma Kentaro(u),
since 東 has several different readings.
Katakana
The Katakana is used to transliterate foreign names and expressions into Japanese. But they do that
in their own way, because of the difference in Japanese phonemes.
E.g. Calgary is pronounced as ka-ru-ga-ri and thus spelled as カルガリ !!
Hiragana
Hiragana is a phonetic character set to represent words which are native to Japanese or
were borrowed long time ago from the Chinese. It is used e.g. for verb endings,
but also it can be used to transliterate the Kanji signs and for educational purposes.
Some of the given names in the Japanese ranking lists are written in Hiragana.
e.g: 山崎めぐみ is Yamazaki Megumi, where the family name 山崎 is Kanji and めぐみ is Hiragana.
Following is an overview of both hiragana (2nd column) and katakana (3rd column) signs.
Example:
東京 is in hiragana とうきょう(to-u-ki-yo-u). This is why I prefer the transliteration Toukyou,
since this the closest to the Japanese pronunciation.
Chinese
The Chinese use characters called Han characters or Hanzi. Some of these characters were also introduced
in the Japanese (Kanji) and Korean (Hanja) written languages.
In unicode there is one characterset developed to combine these, although there are some differences and
some (merely Japanese) people oppose against this unification.
(See this overview of most important ideographs here)
In Chinese some characters are ideographs, others are based on there pronunciation. Nowadays the
traditional Chinese characters have also a simplified form.
There are many different Chinese spoken languages, but the official Chinese is called Putonghua and
is almost the same as Mandarin Chinese. There are several transcription systems like Wade-Giles and Yale,
but the official standard romanization of Putonghua is called Pinyin.
The four different tones in Chinese can be given with diacritics on the vowels or by numbers:
Examples:
上海 Shang4 Hai3 or Shànghǎi
宋丽 Song4 Li4 or Sòng Lì (without tone: Song Li)
张晓磊 Zhang1 Xiao3 Lei3 or Zhāng Xiǎo Lěi (Zhang Xiaolei)
王明坤 Wang2 Ming2 Kun1 or Wáng Míng Kūn (Wang Mingkun)
I only use the tone notations in my Chinese lists.
Links
Omniglot All about alphabets and pronunciation.
KeeleWeb An extensive list of als sorts of (cyrillic) transliteration tables in several countries.
Wikipedia Online encyclopedia, explanation about language and linguistics.