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Transliteration of for Use in Botanical Nomenclature Author(): Jiří Paclt Source: Taxon, Vol. 2, No. 7 (Oct., 1953), pp. 159-166 Published by: International Association for Plant Taxonomy (IAPT) Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1216489 . Accessed: 18/09/2011 13:52

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http://www.jstor.org prove of value for each worker whose can predicted that in the near future a endeavors touch the Characeae. If shortcut significant acceleration in the progress and name-stabilizing legislation can be pre- toward a workable taxonomic treatment of vented, and if blind acceptance of authority Characeae through thb efforts of numerous can be replaced by reliance upon facts; it workers will be witnessed.

Transliteration of Cyrillic for use in botanical nomenclature

I. Materials for a Proposal to be submitted to the Paris Congress

by JIRi PACLT (Bratislava)

The world-wide use of Roman characters sound (phonetic rendering) or that of in scientific and other literature makes it for letter. He usually decides on a com- desirable to introduce a uniform method of promise between the two (Fig. 1, note transfering words from relatively less im- "Mezhdunarodnajakniga" and "Vsesojuznoje portant systems, in which non-Roman objedinenije"respectively). Thus, the render- symbols are used, into the chief of ing of Slavic words into English phonetic the civilized world. Moder Cyrillic is one values, including those of the Cyrillic group, of these minority scripts, although one of may serve as an example of this type of great importance. It is used in the Slavic compromise in transliteration.Not every one languages: primarily Russian, Bulgarian and can be called Smith (Engl.), Compte (Fr.), Serbian. .... etc. The transcription(not transliteration) There are two methods of transferring of these words or names does not vary as a printed or written words from one alphabet rule in different languages in which the to another; viz. 1? rendering by "trans- Roman alphabet is used. On the other hand, cription", and 2? by "transliteration".What proper names of the Slavic, and especially of is transcription?It consists generally speaking the Cyrillic group, may vary very much when in establishing a sound-system of symbols they are transliteratedor transcribed abroad; embracing the range of sounds encountered this is due to the fact that some unfamiliar in human speech, and substituting symbol for superscript is added to definite sounds of the symbol, in the case of , there- original language; the adding of diacritical fore, by the respective phonetic values of a marks on Roman letters, in order to render Roman script system. certain Cyrillic sounds, for instance, leads in In this discussion, however, transcription many languages to the transcribing or trans- is passed over as practically less important to literating of Slavic names in conformity with the problem before us. It may interest rather a conventional principle, which varies accord- specialized phoneticians, especially language ing to the phonetic character of their al- students and instructors, but in the field of phabet. The reader finds the Czechoslovakian philology as applied in biology it is but of family name Benes misspelt in most foreign limited interest. print: Benesh (Engl.), Benesch (Fr.), Benesch On the other hand, the act of transliteration (Germ.), Benes (Hung.), Benesz (Pol.), etc. is well characterized by the saying "letter It seems absurd to give preference to one for letter", which means an equivalent sub- of the existing world languages as the versions stitution of the letters of one alphabet for mentioned above will always remain strictly those of another one. When a transliterator national; therefore, only the official form of looks to the phonetic needs of the languages name should be considered internationally into and from which he is transliterating,we valid. But this rendering certainly causes no designate the procedure as conventional or unsurmountabledifficulties. national rendering.The transliterator,in order Because of structural language affinities to use this method, has to decide whether he an international system of transliterationhas wishes to follow this principle of sound for been proposed for nearly all languages written

159 Fig. 1. A compromise translation of Cyrillic in a Russian letter: no used (zh instead of z in the word Mezhdunarodnaja)as in an.English rendering, but in accordance with an international system in other respects.

160 in non-Roman symbols. These international system, thus replacing the old digraphic or- systems of transliterationcan and should be thography by a new, concise alphabetical adopted for scientific purposes. In determining order. His invention was no work of chance. the form of an international romanization The did not and does not system, the following points must be kept in symbolize a considerable number of the mind: sounds occurring in several of the European languages, and could not, therefore, express ) Romanization is the only method of sufficiently well a Slavic language such as scientific transliteration that need be con- the Czech one. In a tract " Orthographia sidered; rendering the sounds in a non-Roman Bohemica" Hus wrote (about the year 1405) system remains on the contrary, a question that he preferred diacritics to the digraphs of national transliteration:.g., the procedure of that time, with the exception of the "ch" of (rendering in Cyrillic charac- (= kh). Hus found. this sound very distinct, ters). The adoption of a romanized inter- but because "ch" appeared in Latin itself, national system seems to be indicated by the though in words of Greek origin only, and fact that the Roman alphabet is most widely still arranged under "c", he introduced no used in the civilized world. special symbol for it: ".... posui c cum h together, I called that letter kh, and to avoid The method of scientific transliteration II) difficulties in learning as well as changes in must work smoothly in both directions, i.e. books, I did not wish to devise a new into and out of each language. If the system symbol". is it will a re- good, permit nearly precise The of Hus transliteration: not one will be alphabet was later imitated by naturally every Vuk St. Karadzic able to make use of the of such (1787-1864), an eminent advantages and a but when one has an elementary linguistic authority the founder of the system, modern Croatian of the from which the alphabet for the language knowledge language of Croatia and transliterationhas been the Slovenia, where diacritics made, rendering were introduced for will become almost flawless. official use (in 1835). At a later date Slavic diacritical III) An important further step would be have served as a model for two Baltic the rendering of letter for letter, no matter languages (Lithuanian and Lettish). Lithuania in how far the phonetics of the symbol may and Latvia have now used diacritics in their be graphically expressed. reformed orthographic systems for approxi- 30 In two diacritics IV) Should no language affinities in mately years. 1935, (i and z) were in the Fin- relation to a Roman alphabet be present, officially adopted some other feature will have to decide the nish alphabet. As a curiosity it may be noted that the was method of transliteration. Of primary im- following rhyme supplied by is the relative with which the Society for Finnish Literature as a guide portance frequency to the Finnish a language using Roman symbols is used in people: the national method of transliteration. (A rule for the international transliteration of As the word "frakki"(means frac), Japanese, etc.). Must'nt be written "phrakki", By the same reason,.please don't write The chief line upon which the international Any more "shakki" chess), system should be based, is the principle of (feans language affinity. From this point of view, but " a kki". there are no doubts with regard to the application of the system. As for some Some proposals to introduce the technical provisions, however, several dif- S into the came to naught. ficulties have attended the work of the trans- But the considerable success of the Hus literator. The present article, therefore, at- alphabet is reflected in its use in numerous tempts to clear up the old, often called scientific of Oriental scripts, "chaotic" problem. e.g. Sanskrit, Persian, etc. The story of the international romanization The importance of diacritics for the of Cyrillic goes hand in hand with the de- nomenclature may be inferred from the velopment of diacritical marks. It was John following table (PACLT 1952, somewhat Hus (1369-1415), the great Czech reformer, amended since that time and slightly who developed diacritics into an ingenious modified): 161 Rendering for purposes of Examples with special Writing scientific documentation reference to the nomenclature (nomenclature included) in biology

In agreement with Appendix "G" Non-alphabetical of the Int. Rules of Zool. writing systems Alphabetization Nomen- clature. Romanization

Alphabetical (s. lat.) Romanization Transliteration of Cyrillic (a script systems scheme using diacritics with non-Roman (s. str.) being proposed already for use symbols in zoological nomenclature - PACLT(1950,1952); Transliteration of Greek words, e.g. Qxxo = kr6kos (simply romanized) = crocus (romanized and latinized) PACLT (1951), BUCHANAN (1953).

Alphabetical Rendering without In agreement with Appendix "G" systems any change in typography of the Int. Rules of Zool. Nomen- with Roman clature; diacritics should be symbols maintained.

Bibliography -, 1950: Les profits que la nomenclature BUCHANAN, R. E., 1953: Transliteration of zoologique pourrait tirer du scheme inter- Greek words for use in nomenclature in national de translitt6ration applique aux noms Proc. VIII. Int. botany. Taxon 2: 93-96. cyrilliques. Congress MURKO,M., 1909: Johannes Hus als Refor- Entomol. (Stockholm 1948): 995-998. mator der lateinischen Schrift. Stromateis -- , 1951: Concerning of scientific names. Science 114: 63-64. (Grazer Festgabe zur 50. Versammlung deutscher Philologen und Schulmanner): - , 1952: Ueber die Behandlung der dia- 136-154. kritischen Zeichen. Senckenbergiana 33: PACLT, ., 1946: Studie transliteraci azbuky. 357-361. Praha. Suomalaisen kirjallisuuden seuran (Society --, 1949: Transliteration of Cyrillic. Sla- for Finnish Literature): Parantakaamme vonic Encyclopaedia: 615-618. New York. oikeinkirjoitustamme kirjaimilla s ja z. Helsinki, 10. dec. 1935.

II. Proposal no. 33 submitted to the Paris Congress As the Babylonian confusion of tongues limitation as to its use. The only exception was neither a freak of nature nor a work of are proper names that have been cyrillized: chance, and as writing is a function allied in that case there is no reason to render them to speech, we cannot hope to change the in a form corresponding to their cyrillization. existing polymorphism of the script by in- For example, the Russians spell foreign troducing a definite transliteration system. names phonetically (SEKSPIR for SHAKESPEARE). Transliteration remains an auxiliary method It would be absurd to follow the rules of and attempts to transliterate large texts romanization in such cases. For the proper (Russian books on botany printed abroad in name that is to be romanized the transliter- Roman characters) appear ludicrous. ator should always investigate the origin. The systems of international transliteration Before the system of transliteration is applied, should, of course, be applied for scientific the bibliographer, of course, may add the purposes only. But in that sphere of action, de-cyrillized form of the foreign name in international transliteration should be without brackets, e.g. SHAKESPEARE(SEKSPIR).

162 Critical sounds -- La questione della trascrizione dei The principal Russian fall into a caratteri cirillici alla XIV Conferenza Inter- hard series and a corresponding soft series: nazionale della Documentazione a Oxford e alla riunione del Comitato "ISA" 46 a Hard series Soft series Londra. Europa orient. (n.s.) 18: 556-559. 1938 (). -- Sur 1'etat actuel des systemes de trans- A cription des noms slaves cyrilliques dans la 3 0 e documentation bibliographique. F. I. . Trans. 5: 107-109 et 118. 1938 (c). -- 0 6irilice. Hrvat- k latini6koj transkripciji /H)---bi ? -10 ska Rec. 12: 272-273. 1939. Norme adottate e da adottare per l'uni- The H, which in the schemes above is ficazione bibliografica dei nomi d'autori surrounded by a circle, falls into both the variamente trascritti da lingue a caratteri hard and soft series; when H occurs either diversi dall'alfabeto latino, con particolare after a or after b in the middle of a riguardo all' alfabeto cirillico. (Relazione single word, it pertains to the soft series, and al VI Convegno Nazionale dell'Associa- zione Italiana le must be transliterated accordingly: per Biblioteche, Napoli, HJIbHH = = but 15-18 Maggio 1940.) Accad. Bibliot. Ital. Il'jin, oKPaIlHa okrajina, 14: 409-414. 1940. a of eCTeCTBOHCnbITaTeJIb, composite Caratteri cirillici e loro traslitterazione eCTeCTBOandHCnbITaTeJIb, must be trans- nel Mondo 1: literated campo bibliografico. graf. jestestvoispytatel' (semi-initial po- 2-5. 1946 (a). sition of H). - La trascrizione del russo. Lingue estere The e represents a sound closely related 11: 91. 1946 (b). to that of the preceding H. Only when it Forestry Abstracts: Editorial notes. Forestry appears as an initial or semi-initial letter, it Abstr. 13: 3. 1951. differs phonetically. Initially, or at the be- HOAREC. A. Transliterationof RussianNames. ginning of a syllable in the middle of a word, Science (n.s.) 99: 321. 1944; 100: 547. 1944. e has to be transliteratedas . For instance: HRDLICKAA. Russian Names. Science (n.s.) = EBreHHEt Jevgenij; AOCTOeBCKHI = 97: 243. 1943. Dostojevskij; ApceHbeB = Arsenjev. ISO (= InternationalOrganization for Stand- ardization): "Systeme international pour la Bibliography translitteration des caracteres with roman- cyrilliques". (Papers dealing international Document ISO/TC 46 (Secretariat - 45) ization of Cyrillic) 93 (mimeographedand not for publication). AATSEELCommittee on Transliteration. Ma- KARSKIJJ. & LAVROV P. & LJAPUNOV B. Pro- jority Report (by F. J. WHITFIELD).Bull. jekt transkripciji russkich sobstvennych AATSEEL 5: 102. 1948. (See also N. P. imen latinskim pismom. Izv. Akad. Nauk VAKARand A. SELYSrespectively.) SSSR (Bull. Acad. Sci. USSR), ser. 6. 19: DAMIANIE. Sull' unificazione della trascri- 865-866. 1925. zione dei nomi slavi originariamentescritti KNIEZSAI. Cirillbetiis szlav sz6vegek nem- in caratteri cirillici nei cataloghi delle zetkozi tudomanyos atirasa. Mag. Konyv- biblioteche a caratteri latini. (Relazione szemle, ser. 3. 63: 149-158. 1939. presentata al II Congresso rhondiale delle KUHN E. & SCHNORR H. v. CAROLSFELD. Die Biblioteche e di Bibliografia a Madrid il Transcription fremder Alphabete. Vor- 21 maggio 1935 e adottata come voto del schlage zur LSsung der Frage auf Grund Congresso.) Europa orient. (n.s.) 15: 449- des Genfer "Rapport de la Commission de 452. 1935. Transcription" und mit Beriicksichtigung - Sulla questione della trascrizione dei von Bibliothekszwecken. Leipzig 1897. caratteri cirillici in caratteri latini e vice- PACLTJ. Studie o transliteraci azbuky. (In- versa. Italo-b alg. Spis. Lit. Ist. Izk. (Riv. ternational transliteration of the moder Lett. Stor. Arte) 6: 52-63. 1936. versions of Cyrillic.) Praha 1946. - Ancora sulla trascrizione dei nomi ciril- Transliterationof Cyrillic. Slavonic - lici in caratteri latini sotto l'aspetto biblio- cyclopaedia: 615-618. New York 1949. teconomico e bibliografico. Rev. int. Etud. - Les profits que la nomenclature zoolo- balkan. 2: 617-623. 1938 (a). gique pourrait tirer du scheme international

163 de translitteration applique aux noms cy- soc. Teachers Slav. & East Europ. Lan- rilliques. Proc. VIII. int. Congress Ento- guages). mol. (Stockholm 1948): 995-998. 1950. * * 33: 357. (Corrigenda: Senckenbergiana From the historical point of view, it is 1952.) interesting to note that the international SELYSA. Popular and academic transliteration. system of transliteration of Cyrillic was Bull. AATSEEL6: 54-56. 1948. devised in 1900 for use in the International Slavia: Transliterace cyrilskeho pisma do la- Catalogue of Scientific Literature, and that tinky. Slavia 20: 158-161. 1950. (See also many German annual bibliographies accepted Slavia 17: 317-320. 1939.) that system since the publication of the paper Soviet All-Union Standard OST 8483, 16. by KUHN & SCHNORR.In botany, it is now Oct. 1935. (The column on transliteration accepted by the Commonwealth Forestry for geographical and family names.) Bureau (Forestry Abstracts) and by the SCERBAL. V. Transliteracijalatinskimi buk- Commonwealth Bureau of Plant Breeding vami russkich familij i geograficeskichnaz- and Genetics (Plant Breeding Abstracts). It for in vanij. Izv. Akad. Nauk SSSR (Bull. Acad. is promulgatedalso use the preparation Sci. URSS), Otd. Lit. Jaz. (C1. Sci. litt. of the Index Botanicorum (VERDOORN1944). 1940: 118-126, 1940. WHEREAS Russian proper names i.e. ling.) and SEVCIK A. La translitteration. F.I.D. Rev. (both geographic family names) may serve in Document. 14: 21-22. 1947. the denomination of many new taxa. AND WHEREAS the actual edition of the VAKAR N. P. Transliteration.Bull. AATSEEL 6: "International Code of Botanical Nomen- 29-30. 1948. clature" does not contain any Recommend- VERDOORN F. On the aims and methods of ation with regard to the way in which Rus- biological history and biography. Chronica sian words are to be transliterated. bot. 8: (437-438). 1944. I, THEREFORE, wish to submit the fol- WHITFIELD F. J. see AATSEEI, (= Amer. As- lowing Proposalfor an Appendix to the Code.

Cyrillic letter Roman letter Observation A a A a B 6 B b B B V v r | G g In alphabets other than Ukrainian & White Russian. r r r H h Only in the Ukrainian & White Russian alphabets. 1 r G g Obsolete letter.

I r G g Occurs only in the . ,A D d 'iB DJ dj Occurs only in the Serbian alphabet. E e In the Russian & White Russian alphabets: Initially, or (JE e) at the beginningof syllables(after a vowel, a b E e A jl or a-b ), E (e) has to be rendered as JE (je).

[E e In alphabets other than Russian & White Russian. .E e Occurs only in the Russian & White Russian - E 'e E bets: for the rendering by JE (je), see the Russian (JE je) letter E (e).

164 Cyrillic letter Roman letter Observation

eC JE je Occursonly in the Ukrainianalphabet.

MC MK Z Z

3 3 Z z

In the : I . At the beginning of a syllable (after a vowel, a b or a t ), but not as an initial sound, either of a free IJ ji) word or of a word that forms of a It4M J part compound II;a~ ~word, H has to be rendered as JI (ji).

1 i In the Bulgarian, Serbian & Macedonian alphabets. y In the .

; In Russian but still in the Ukrainian I obsolete, present alphabet. [ I i In the White Russian alphabet: for the rendering by (J! ji) JI (ji), see the RussianM.

I i" Jl ji Occurs only in the Ukrainian alphabet. 1 H J

J j J j Occurs only in the Serbian & Macedonian alphabet. K K K k

K }I K k Occurs only in the Macedonian alphabet.

JI Ji L I

tLJ Ij In the Serbian alphabet. Jb lb I IL I In the Macedonian alphabet. M M m

H H N n

NJ nj In the Serbian alphabet. b H) (n) N' r In the Macedonian alphabet. O o 0 o

n n P p

165 Cyrillic letter Roman letter Observation

P P R r C c S s

T T T t

T> t (C) C C Occursonly in the Serbianalphabet.

y y u

Y y U U Occursonly in the White Russianalphabet.

4>$ F f ( CH ch In alphabetsother than Serbian. X H h Only in the Serbianalphabet. Il H C c

lII V (g) DZ di Occursonly in the Serbian& Macedonianalphabets.

S s DZ dz Occursonly in the Macedonianalphabet. LU I S s

SC SC In alphabetsother than Bulgarian.

ST st In the Bulgarianalphabet. Disregarded In alphabetsother than Bulgarian. 'b rb ~Q In the : A a In the middle of a word. bI bI Y y b b

4; ; eE Obsoleteletter. 3 a E e 10 Io JU ju 51 g JA ja 0 e F f Obsoleteletter. V v Y y Obsoleteletter.

>IhC A a Obsoleteletter.

166