Transliterating Danish nouns into Russian?

[Paul B. Gallagher]

Grover Furr-FM wrote:
> Dear colleagues:
> 
> A Swedish colleague of mine will soon present an article of his to a 
> fine Russian translator for eventual publication in Russian. He has 
> asked me for some help.
> 
> The article contains many Danish street names and other proper nouns. 
> The Russian translator has asked him to provide Cyrillic 
> transliterations of these proper nouns.
> 
> My colleague would like to know:
> 
> * Is there a standard formula for transliterating from Danish into Russian?
> 
> If there isn't, or one can't be found,
> 
> * Is there a list of standard transliterations?
> 
> It's clear that some Danish proper nouns have been transliterated from 
> English, rather than from how they are pronounced in Danish. For 
> example, Copenhagen is, in Cyrillic, ??????????/ /(Kopengagen). If the 
> transliteration had followed Danish pronunciation, it would have been 
> something like ?????????/./ But it isn't.
> 
> He also has a few Norwegian proper nouns.
> 
> Still, the usual practice in transliterating from other languages into 
> Russian is to approximate the pronunciation rather than the spelling.
> 
> I'd appreciate any guidance here. I'll pass it on to my Swedish 
> colleague (who is not on this list).

Yes, there are general principles.

If you'll send me your street address, I'll xerox and send you the 
Danish sections from the following two sources, which are very thorough:

Иностранные имена и названия в русском тексте: Справочник [Foreign Names 
in Russian Text: A Handbook], by R. S. Gilyarevsky & B. A. Starostyan. 
3rd ed. Moscow: Vysshaya shkola, 1985.

Иностранные фамилии и личные имена. Практическая транскрипция на русский 
язык. Словарь-справочник [Foreign Surnames and Given Names: Practical 
Transcription  into Russian. A Reference Dictionary], by R. A. Lidin. 
Moscow: Vneshsigma, 1998.

Each provides about 8-10 pages of explanations and examples, along with 
lists of common names. Too much to retype, and I don't have a scanner 
here in the office.

Or you may be able to find them in your local university library.

-- 
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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