query about transliteration

[Paul B. Gallagher]

Michael Brewer wrote:

 > Carol,
 >
 > Though I am not certain that it will have the answer to your
 > questions (I am not sure there is a single system that Russians
 > uniformly use, just as there is no system that Westerners uniformly
 > use) I do have a fairly extensive overview of transliteration and
 > transcription on that portion of my Slavic Information Literacy site
 > (still very much under construction and still very interested in the
 > input/collaboration of others in the field).  Hopefully this can be
 > helpful.  Please use IE to view (I hope to resolve the browser
 > problems at a later date).
 >
 > Mb
 >
 >
<http://dizzy.library.arizona.edu/library/teams/fah/subpathpages/Russian.Slavic/RIL/library/transcription/transcription.htm>
 > (be sure also to look at the sub pages linked from the "More
 > Resources" section).

The transliteration system used depends largely on the author's purpose
and the community to which he/she belongs. Academic Slavicists may
follow one system, whereas librarians will follow another, and news
editors will follow yet another, and so forth. An author submitting to a
particular publication, of course, will conform to that publication's
standards.

Your chart at
<http://dizzy.library.arizona.edu/library/teams/fah/subpathpages/Russian.Slavic/RIL/library/transcription/charts.pdf>
depicts three popular systems used in academia, but omits the BGN
(Bureau of Geographic Names) system used in the US government, which
forms the basis for most systems used in the news media and in
commercial applications. However, you do mention it in passing at
<http://dizzy.library.arizona.edu/library/teams/fah/subpathpages/Russian.Slavic/RIL/library/transcription/transhistory.htm>.
In my experience, transliterations in the news media follow BGN, with
the exception that known ё is represented as "yo" (E.g., "Kovalyov"
instead of "Kovalev"). But then again, they do write "Khrushchev,"
probably more out of habit. All in all, I think we can agree the
situation is a mess.


FWIW, I had no difficulty viewing your pages with Netscape 7. The site
is a valuable resource that I intend to read thoroughly when I get a chance.

--
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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