I’m rereading The Lord of the Rings at the moment and I realised that wrestling with Tolkien’s alphabets is what gave me the fascination with alphabets that I still have.
I started writing a note on transliteration for work; wonder how much of it will survive to livejournal posting?
A. Albanian
Ë and ë are written E and e in our reports; Ç and ç are written C and c. Otherwise Albanian spelling is used. [Note on forms of words with definite article? In general I suppose we use Tirana rather than Tiranë?]
Note: Care must be taken when using Albanian proper names found in Serbian or Macedonian sources. There is a strong risk of double transliteration producing an inaccurate spelling – eg the common Albanian surname Hoxha is written Хоџа in Serbian and
B. Azeri
ə and ə are written A and a in our reports; Ç and ç are written C and cĞ and ğ are written G and gİ is written I and ı is written iÖ and ö are written O and oŞ and ş are written S and sÜ and ü are written U and u.
But we rewrite the Azeri letters Q and q as G and g, and the letters X and x as Kh and kh.
C. Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian
The standard transliteration from Cyrillic to Latin will be used in our reports, subject to the following modifications:
Č and Ć are written as C, and č and ć as c in our reports. Đ and đ are written as Dj and dj. Š and š are written S and s. Ž and ž are written Z and z.
An exception is made for names which are Russian or Bulgarian, in which case the standard English transcriptions for those languages are used – most importantly, Ш and ш become Sh and shЧ and ч become Ch and chЦ and ц become Ts and ts (not C and cЖ and ж become Zh and zhЕ and е are often Ye and ye.
In Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian, proper names of companies and organisations normally capitalise only the first letter (eg Međunarodna krizna grupa). When such a name is used in an English language report we retain the original capitalisation. [Actually I’m not sure about this. It is clearer to the average Anglophone reader if all words in the name are capitalised.]
D. Georgian
კ, ქ and ყ are all written as K or k in our reports. ჩ and ჭ are both written Ch or ch. პ and ფ are both written as P or p. თ and ტ are both written as T or t. ც and წ are both written Ts or ts. ძ is written Dz or dz. ღ is written Gh or gh. შ is written Sh or sh. ჟ is written Zh or zh. ხ is written Kh or kh. ჯ is written J or j.
There are no capital letters in Georgian. We follow English language conventions for capitalisation.
It may be necessary to check the correct English spelling of non-Georgian names found in Georgian media reports. There are risks of triple transliteration (ie via Russian and Georgian).
E. Macedonian
The standard transliteration is used as for Serbian. Ѓ and ѓ should normally be written Gj and gj, and Ќ and ќ as Kj and kj, except if the name is clearly of Serbian origin in which case dj and c should be used. Ѕ and ѕ as far as I know are always transliterated Dz and dz.
See also notes under Bosnian/Serbian/Croatian about Russian/Bulgarian names and compound proper names.
F. Romanian (Moldovan)
Our reports in English do not use diacritical marks. The obvious modifications are therefore made to Ă/ă, Â/â, Î/î, Ş/ş and Ţ/ţ.
I read the first of the three Modern Library volumes of Gibbon over 15 years ago; I keep meaning to go back to it after I’ve read enough supplemental stuff to give me a bit more confidence.
Vol. 1 of Livy (Oxford World’s Classics edition) kind of shook rather than stiffened that particular resolve.