Translit is what?

Perhaps, many can remember those days when mobile phones did not support Cyrillic and SMS had to write in Latin, that is, transliterate. Thus, translit is the transmission of the signs of one language by the signs of the other.

Transliteration and transliteration

The word "translit" comes from the abbreviation of the term "transliteration". However, this is not exactly the same thing.

Transliteration is a linguistic term for translating alphabetic characters of one language into signs of another writing. It can be of different types and types, depending on the purpose and the languages involved. It is distinguished by the availability of the system and the rules by which it is produced.

Transliteration as a separate area of linguistics began to form in the XIX century. This was dictated by the practical needs of libraries, which needed to somehow systematize catalogs of books, whose names were in a variety of languages.

As for transliteration, specifically from Russian to Latin, there are several recognized systems, such as, for example, ISO-9, the transliteration system of the Library of Congress , or the international standard of transliteration for foreign passports.

Translit is, in turn, not a scientific concept, but rather a domestic one. Transliteration also means the transposition of words written in one alphabet, the signs of the other, but it allows a more "free" style, has no clear rules and can contain any graphic characters other than letters, for example, numbers.

Thus, translit is a simplified transliteration. Often, it retains the basic rules of transliteration, but they can be violated and vary from person to person. Most often it relies on phonetic matching.

History of transliteration

The rudiments of translit, in view of the need to write down foreign words with the letters of their native language, have arisen for a very long time. Most often this was due to the fact that in one language culture there simply could not be a phenomenon that is present in another. And when there was a collision with this phenomenon, and, correspondingly, the word denoting it, there was no translation. And the word simply transliterated. Since transliteration was formed in a separate direction of linguistics only two centuries ago, everything that was more logical would be called transliteration - as a chaotic phenomenon that does not have clear rules.

If we go to times closer to us, then, for example, we know about the telegrams sent by Soviet travelers from abroad, in which they used translit from Russian to Latin, using it as they could. But this is all the affairs of long forgotten days. The "golden age" of transliteration, of course, began in the computer age, and, in a good way, the true history of transliteration should be maintained from the very beginning.

Basically, the need for transliteration appeared due to the fact that at the dawn of the Internet, not all (or rather, at first almost no) computer platforms supported other types of writing, except the Latin alphabet. Including the support of the Russian language did not appear immediately. Therefore, in those days it was possible to find whole messages on forums written in transliteration.

Fortunately, the situation has changed for a long time for the better - now most platforms support many languages, even the rarest, not to mention Russian. As well as buying a keyboard with a Russian layout is no longer a problem.

Types of translit

There are many kinds of translit in the whole world - it is enough simply to imagine how many different languages and situations exist in which transliteration may be needed. But since we live in Russia and most often encounter the need to translit from Russian into English (and sometimes vice versa), we will focus on those types that have spread among Russian-speaking Internet users.

Gamersky transliteration

It has spread through online games. Not all games support the Russian keyboard layout, and even if supported, switching back and forth from Russian to English during the game is not very convenient.

Its distinctive feature is the use of Latin letters, as well as numbers and other signs in such a way that the resulting word in writing looks like Russian letters. For example, the phrase "Hello everyone!" In this performance will look like "BceM npUBeT!", And the name "Julia" as "I-OJIU9I".

Household transliteration

Now it is quite difficult to imagine when a person can translit a person in ordinary Internet communication. Especially if he sits at home at his own computer. Perhaps, a rare exception may be unless registration at a forum or other resource, which until now for some reason does not support writing nicks in Russian and have to resort to transliteration into English. However, such a need may very well arise in travel. Being abroad and having at their disposal a keyboard without a Russian layout in a local Internet cafe, sometimes one has to remember this way to convey their messages to friends at home.

In this case, the substitution is usually based on the principle of relative phonetic correspondence, although not very accurate. For example, the same "Hello everyone!" And "Julia" will look like "Vsem privet!" And "Ulia" / "Yuliya".

As can be seen from the example with a name, different variations are possible. Sometimes other graphic signs, in addition to letters, creep from the "gaming style" and here. The word "person" can be written as "chelovek", but can be as "4elovek", which saves time.

Translit from English into Russian

Translit in Russian, too, is periodically found in everyday Internet communication. We are surrounded by many foreign names - it is logical to assume that it is easier for a person to write "washing machine" Indesit "using a phonetic correspondence than to switch to an English layout and remember how this word is correctly spelled in English.

Correct translit

With it, we can meet, for example, when registering website addresses. In fact, this kind of translit is inherently closer to transliteration, because often it is necessary to adhere to strict rules. For example, compliance with accepted transliteration standards when creating URL pages will be crucial for successful SEO-promotion. However, this does not negate the fact that many in this case continue to transliterate at their own discretion.

Typical matches when using translit

In spite of the fact that translit does not have strict rules, it is possible to designate the basic correspondences. We offer you a table for clarity.

Translit interpreters

In this case, by the way, there are also good assistants. So, if it seems to you that translit is something too complicated, but it was necessary to translate any text (especially in large volumes), the numerous online translators that have appeared recently can help you from Russian to translit.

To use them is very simple: just enter the text in Russian in the appropriate field and the program will do everything for you. You will only have to copy the result and send it to the addressee.