1、BRITISH STANDARD CONFIRMED DECEMBER1998 BS 2979:1958 Transliteration of Cyrillic and Greek characters UDC 003.34.034BS2979:1958 This British Standard, having been approved by the Documentation Standards Committee, was published underthe authority of the GeneralCouncil on 30 July 1958 BSI05-2000 ISBN
2、0580349616 Co-operating organizations The Documentation Standards Committee, under whose supervision this British Standard was prepared, consists of representatives from the following Government departments and scientific, technical and professional organizations: Abstracting Services Consultative C
3、ommittee Aslib* Biological Council Bodleian Library Booksellers Association of Gt. Britain British Council* British Federation of Master Printers British Museum* Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux Department of Scientific it is here convenient to designate the former as “transcription” and the latter
4、 as “transliteration”. Transcription gives a good idea of pronunciation, and this is important when a whole language with all its traditions is given a new outward form or script, as was done for Turkish 30 years ago, or when the Latin alphabet is introduced as an aid to phoneticization of a non-alp
5、habetic script, as in China today, but it is of secondary importance in documentation. Transliteration means representing visual characters or signs, not sounds; that is, characters considered as written symbols rather than according to their phonetic or etymological values. It should be virtually a
6、utomatic, so that anyone able to identify the language of the original can transliterate by rule-of-thumb and, conversely, transliterate back to the original characters. Clearly, 25 or26Latin letters cannot be made to render 40 or 50 Cyrillic characters (exceptby overuse of diacritics) without occas
7、ional resort to letter combinations; when essential, this should be done with the minimum of ambiguity. The same symbols should not be used to transliterate different characters in any one language, and the use of two or more letters for a single character is acceptable only when the Roman alphabet
8、offers no reasonable alternative. In transcription, deference to the phonetic peculiarities of different languages often produces startling national variantsas for instance, of the Russian name this is traditionally written edrin in Croat and Czech, Szczedrin in Polish, Shchedrin in English, Chtched
9、rine in French, Sjtsjedrin in Dutch and Schtschedrin in German, thus requiring up to seven Latin letters for the single Cyrillic characterand making for a bewildering dispersal of entries in any internationally compiled catalogue or list. To simplify and improve communication and exchange of informa
10、tion, there is need of a single internationally recognized system of romanization for every non-Roman alphabet at all widely used in the world, especially perhaps for Cyrillic, which is the vehicle for an immense and increasing output of scientific and technical literature today. In fact, a system i
11、ntended to fulfil just this need for modern Slavonic languages written in Cyrillic has recently (1955) been published by the International Organization for Standardization ISO as ISORecommendation No. 9 Ref. ISO/R9see “International” system (p. 5), and Table C which conforms to it. However, as the a
12、lphabet into which transliteration is made by this system is an amplification of the Serbo-Croat latinica, it can hardly be expected that it will be used for all purposes in countries with alphabetic traditions and literary heritage as strong as those of English, and it is significant that ISO/R9 co
13、ntains a proviso that “if so desired, the standard international system. may be supplemented by a recognized national system based on the characteristics of the non-Slav language concerned”.BS2979:1958 BSI 05-2000 iii Present recommendations This British Standard provides both “national” (British) a
14、nd “international” systems for transliteration of Cyrillic (Sections 1 and 2) and a simple rule-of-thumb system for Greek (Section 3): it also includes an appended Note on Cyrillic alphabets, which it is hoped will be of use to those interested in the historical aspects. “British” system for Cyrilli
15、c. Since English is the most widely used of all languages, at least so far as scientific and technical literature is concerned, it is desirable to provide a system of the type traditionally used throughout the English-speaking world. Though no general-purpose “English” system 1)has yet been accepted
16、 by Anglo-American agreement, it is now possible to recommend, for direct everyday rendering of names and passages in Cyrillic, a “British” system which should appeal to all English-speaking users, and especially to those concerned with the bibliography, abstracting and reference work of science and
17、 technology. This “British” system, given in Section 1, is based on recommendations for Russian, Serbian and Bulgarian made jointly by the Royal Society and the British Academy in 1953, but slightly modified for Russian 2)and amplified to include Ukrainian and Byelorussian (White Russian). As regard
18、s Serbian, the Royal Society scheme gave the latinica as an alternative to its “English” transliteration and, since recent experience has shown increasing use of the latinica in Yugoslavia, it is recommended that this should now be used exclusively for transliterating Serbian (and Macedonian) Cyrill
19、ic. The recommended “British” system is, for most practical purposes, without ambiguity and provides not only for the direct Cyrillic-English transliteration normally required (Table A), but also for English-Cyrillic back transliteration (Table B). It can therefore be recommended with confidence to
20、all those who require a national system at once practical and in harmony with English alphabetic traditions. For extreme simplicity, when avoidance of ambiguity in back transliteration is not a paramount consideration, all accents, diacritics, etc., may be omitted in the “English” rendering. “Intern
21、ational” system for Cyrillic. The system given in Section2 is aimed at satisfying the need for a letter-for-letter system of transliteration of Cyrillic, suitable especially for the widening field of international communication between countries using the Roman alphabet but not necessarily familiar
22、with, or ready to adopt, English alphabetic traditions. Table C of this Standard conforms to the recommendations of ISO/R9 for modern languages written in Slavonic Cyrillic characters, i.e. other than those of the Iranian, Caucasian, Uralian, Altaic and Palaeoasiatic groups; it also includes one Rom
23、ance language, Moldavian, for which the transliteration mainly follows modern Rumanian orthography. In addition, there are separate (Table D and Table E) for Church Slavonic and Rumanian Cyrillic respectively, and a back transliteration (Table F). 1) For their specialized cartographic requirements,
24、the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use PCGN and the U.S. Board on Geographic Names BGN employ uniform systems for the transliteration of Russian and Bulgarian geographical names; these differ from the “British” system mainly in using y for(as well as for ) and e for (
25、as well as for Russian F, except initially, after vowels and after , and , when ye is used). 2) The modifications are the use of” (instead of ) for the “hard” signand(instead of th) for the obsolete character F (Table A, Nos. 38 and 46 respectively).BS2979:1958 iv BSI 05-2000 ISO/R9 was the outcome
26、of years of postwar work in the International Organization for Standardization on a draft scheme prepared by its forerunner, the International Federation of National Standards Associations ISA, and issued in 1939. In this connection, it is interesting to note that the pre-war Russian standard OCT 84
27、83 is no longer applied in the U.S.S.R. and that the Linguistics Institute of the Academy of Sciences, after correspondence with ISO, has drawn up a transliteration table differing only in minor refinements fromISO/R9. Greek. The problems of Greek transliteration are less complicated than those of C
28、yrillic. Section 3 (Table G) provides a letter for-letter system for cataloguers and other documentation workers, and deals with the Greek alphabet without special regard to phonetic, etymological or other linguistic peculiarities of Ancient, Mediaeval and Modern Greekin short, a straightforward rul
29、e-of-thumb system in line with international practice. Notes on cataloguing and indexing 1. Cross-referencing of variant transliterations. In catalogues, indexes, etc., where “English” and “international” variants are in use, appropriate cross-references should of course be made. Similarly, cross-re
30、ferences will also be necessary under to Ch, under H to Kh (and Ch), under Ju to Yu, and so on. 2. Names foreign to the Slavonic languages. English or other non-Slavonic names occurring already cyrillicized in a text should be rendered back into Latin script according to the “British” or the “Intern
31、ational” system letter by letter, and the correct form (in its original spelling), if necessary for recognition and indexing, should be added in square brackets whenever ascertainable, thus: 3. Alphabetical arrangement. In BS 1749:1951 (Alphabetical Arrangement) Clause 4, it is recommended that the
32、presence of accents, diacritics and apostrophes should not affect alphabetical order. e.g. under Ch: “See also entries under . . . for Cyrillic words beginning . . .” under Kh (and Ch): “See also entries under H . . . for Cyrillic and Greek words beginning X . . .” under Ph: “See also entries under
33、F . . . for Greek words beginning9 . . .” under Shch: “See also entries under . . . for Cyrillic words beginning . . .” under Yu: “See also entries under Ju . . . for Cyrillic words beginning. . .” Original name Cyrillicized form Rendering back into Latin Howard Govard Howard Sternberg Shternberg or
34、 ternberg Sternberg Weigl or Vejgl Weigl Winchester Uinchester or Uinester WinchesterBS2979:1958 BSI 05-2000 v Examples of titles of periodicals in Cyrillic with their “British” and “International” transliterations for comparisonBS2979:1958 vi BSI 05-2000 A British Standard does not purport to inclu
35、de all the necessary provisions of a contract. Users of British Standards are responsible for their correct application. Compliance with a British Standard does not of itself confer immunity from legal obligations. Summary of pages This document comprises a front cover, an inside front cover, pagesi
36、 tovi, pages1to15 and a back cover. This standard has been updated (see copyright date) and may have had amendments incorporated. This will be indicated in the amendment table on the inside front cover.BS2979:1958 BSI 05-2000 1 Section 1. “British” system for (modern) Cyrillic NOTE 1For extreme simp
37、licity, when avoidance of ambiguity in back transliteration is not a paramount consideration, all accents, diacritics, etc., may be omitted in the English rendering. NOTE 2Cyrillic characters for which the transliteration is given in parentheses, though no longer in official use, are sometimes found
38、 in the literature of the relevant language, e.g. in migr or the older literature. NOTE 3The Serbian and Macedonian column to avoid the confusion of an “English” transliteration, gives the latinica which is the existing Latin alphabet of Serbo-Croat and is being used to an increasing extent in Yugos
39、lavia. NOTE 4For transliteration of Moldavian, see Table C in Section 2.BS2979:1958 2 BSI 05-2000 Table A Cyrillic-English transliteration (“British” system)BS2979:1958 BSI 05-2000 3Table A Cyrillic-English transliteration (“British” system)BS2979:1958 4 BSI 05-2000 Table B Back transliteration: Eng
40、lish-CyrillicBS2979:1958 BSI 05-2000 5 Section 2. “International” system for Cyrillic NOTE 1ISO/R9 stipulates that (Slavonic Cyrillic) items transliterated according to the recommended international system are to be indicated by the letters ISO between square brackets, thus: ISO NOTE 2In Table C, Cy
41、rillic characters for which the transliteration is given in parentheses, though no longer in official use, are sometimes found in the literature of the relevant language, e.g. in migr or the older literature. NOTE 3Transliteration of “borrowed” characters. A Cyrillic character which does not occur i
42、n the alphabet of any given Slavonic language, and for which there is no transliteration in the appropriate column of Table A, may be transliterated by the rendering given for that character in any other column of the table or, if Old (Church) Slavonic, in Table B. NOTE 4Diacritics and conventional
43、substitutes for use in typescripts. The diacritics to be used, especially in printed documents, are those given in the tables following. For typescripts (and documents reproduced from typescripts), these diacritics may be replaced conventionally by other more readily available signs, thus: A double-stroke sign by a different double sign: Cby or (Nos. 10, 34, 35, 36, 37 but only for No. 41 because is used for No. 8b) by (Nos. 8b, 15) A single-stroke sign by a different single sign: by (No. 29) by (Nos. 5, 42)
