What is Transliteration?
Translation is the process of translating a word or a phrase in the source language into the target language in an accurate and complete manner without changing its original meaning. On the other hand, transliteration is the process of converting letters from one system of writing into another based on phonetic similarities. Translation provides you with the meaning of the words in another language. Transliteration does not tell you the meaning of the words; however, it gives you an idea about how a certain word is pronounced in a foreign language. In other words, it somehow helps you become more familiar with the letters of another language that would otherwise be almost impossible to comprehend. For instance, writing Russian, Arabic, Japanese, Korean, or Greek words by using Latin letters, etc..
To reiterate as this is particularly important: Transliteration does not mean creating brand new words, sentences, or whole new meanings; transliteration is conversion of letters from the source text into another language phonetically to give a similar pronunciation in the target language. If we are able to read documents, in which Latin letters are not used, in our native language today, this is thanks to transliteration.
For instance, let’s take a look at the Chinese word: 牛排. If you do not speak Chinese, this word would mean nothing to you. Even with transliteration of this word, it will not help you to understand its meaning if you do not speak this language. Chinese word 牛排 means “biftek” in Turkish and “beef” in English. Its transliteration using Latin letters is “niu pai”. As mentioned before, if you do not speak Chinese, the transliteration “niu pai” would not mean anything to you. It would only help you pronounce this word like a Chinese native speaker.
In Chinese, characters do not form a word by just lining up one after another since there is a different character for each word. Since reading such characters is difficult for those who do not speak this language, a writing system called Hanyu Pinyin (or Pinyin for short), which was officially adopted by the Chinese government as of 1979, is used to allow for such Chinese characters to be written and read in Latin letters. Pinyin is also a type of transliteration and a method that is often used in menus of most Chinese restaurants. Transliteration of the Chinese names for menu items written in Latin letters is added next to each menu item for customers who do not speak Chinese. In this way, customers are able to order food easily and the restaurant staff save time without need for translating each menu item to customers again and again with every order.
Words created by transliteration do not always give the exact pronunciation of the words contained in the source text, especially in case of using computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools. At this point, a qualified translator’s own interpretation of such words may be required. Therefore, one should always consult professional translators specialized in the subject matter for transliteration requirements. Otherwise, you may get unsound and inaccurate transliteration results.
