Informal romanizations of Russian
Encyclopedia
Informal or ad hoc romanizations of Russian have been in use since the early days of electronic communications, starting from early e-mail
and bulletin board system
s. Their use faded with the advances in Russia
n internet
that ensured standard support of Cyrillic alphabet
, but resurfaced with proliferation of instant messaging
, SMS
and mobile phone
messaging in Russia.
" (Russian
: кодировка "воляпюк" or "волапюк", kodirovka volapyuk) was sometimes used.
More recently the term "translit
" emerged to indiscriminately refer to both programs that transliterate Cyrillic (and other non-Latin alphabets) into Latin, as well as the result of such transliteration. The word is derived by convenience truncation of the term transliteration
, and most probably its usage originated in several places. An example of early "translit" is the MS DOS program TRANSLIT by Jan Labanowski, which run from the command prompt
to convert a Cyrillic file to a Latin one using a specified transliteration table.
There are two basic varieties of romanization of Russian: transliterations and Leetspeak-type of rendering of Russian text. The latter one is often heavily saturated with common English words, which are often much shorter than the corresponding Russian ones, and is sometimes referred to as Runglish
or Russlish.
and Volapuk
- being Translit mostly, it replaces some 2 or 3 character transliterations with shorter 1 character counterparts from Volapuk. This speeds up typing; however, in some cases characters may be volapuk-encoded, making text appear incorrectly and therefore be harder or impossible to read. In Russia
and countries where Russian is used regularly to communicate via mobile phone
and chat room
, it is used as an alternate and free style of transliteration
.
The main reason that transliteration is used with Russian is that in text messages you get more Latin characters for your money: usually 160 Latin characters per charged message versus 60/70 Cyrillic characters. Obviously the onus is on getting one Latin symbol (of which there are 26) for each Cyrillic symbol (of which there are 33 in Russian, and extra symbols in Ukrainian
and other Cyrillic-based languages). Only those used for Russian are exemplified here.
(Where variants are given, the first is most common and the last is less common - although trends change quickly and differ from person-to-person.)
E-mail
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
and bulletin board system
Bulletin board system
A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a computer system running software that allows users to connect and log in to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, a user can perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging...
s. Their use faded with the advances in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
that ensured standard support of Cyrillic alphabet
Cyrillic alphabet
The Cyrillic script or azbuka is an alphabetic writing system developed in the First Bulgarian Empire during the 10th century AD at the Preslav Literary School...
, but resurfaced with proliferation of instant messaging
Instant messaging
Instant Messaging is a form of real-time direct text-based chatting communication in push mode between two or more people using personal computers or other devices, along with shared clients. The user's text is conveyed over a network, such as the Internet...
, SMS
SMS
SMS is a form of text messaging communication on phones and mobile phones. The terms SMS or sms may also refer to:- Computer hardware :...
and mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
messaging in Russia.
Development
Due to its informal character, there was neither well-established standard nor common name. In the early days of e-mail, the humorous term "Volapuk encodingVolapuk encoding
Volapuk encoding or latinitsa is a slang term for rendering the letters of the Cyrillic script with Latin ones...
" (Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
: кодировка "воляпюк" or "волапюк", kodirovka volapyuk) was sometimes used.
More recently the term "translit
Translit
Translit is a method of encoding Cyrillic letters with Latin ones. The term is derived from transliteration, the system of replacing letters of one alphabet with letters of another....
" emerged to indiscriminately refer to both programs that transliterate Cyrillic (and other non-Latin alphabets) into Latin, as well as the result of such transliteration. The word is derived by convenience truncation of the term transliteration
Transliteration
Transliteration is a subset of the science of hermeneutics. It is a form of translation, and is the practice of converting a text from one script into another...
, and most probably its usage originated in several places. An example of early "translit" is the MS DOS program TRANSLIT by Jan Labanowski, which run from the command prompt
Command Prompt
Command Prompt is the Microsoft-supplied command-line interpreter on OS/2, Windows CE and on Windows NT-based operating systems...
to convert a Cyrillic file to a Latin one using a specified transliteration table.
There are two basic varieties of romanization of Russian: transliterations and Leetspeak-type of rendering of Russian text. The latter one is often heavily saturated with common English words, which are often much shorter than the corresponding Russian ones, and is sometimes referred to as Runglish
Runglish
Runglish, Ringlish, Ruglish or Russlish , are terms for describing the Russian-English pidgin language. They were popularized in 2000 as a name for one of the languages aboard the International Space Station...
or Russlish.
Russian Chat Alphabet
The Russian Chat Alphabet is a fast-to-type mix of TranslitTranslit
Translit is a method of encoding Cyrillic letters with Latin ones. The term is derived from transliteration, the system of replacing letters of one alphabet with letters of another....
and Volapuk
Volapuk encoding
Volapuk encoding or latinitsa is a slang term for rendering the letters of the Cyrillic script with Latin ones...
- being Translit mostly, it replaces some 2 or 3 character transliterations with shorter 1 character counterparts from Volapuk. This speeds up typing; however, in some cases characters may be volapuk-encoded, making text appear incorrectly and therefore be harder or impossible to read. In Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and countries where Russian is used regularly to communicate via mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
and chat room
Chat room
The term chat room, or chatroom, is primarily used by mass media to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing...
, it is used as an alternate and free style of transliteration
Transliteration
Transliteration is a subset of the science of hermeneutics. It is a form of translation, and is the practice of converting a text from one script into another...
.
The main reason that transliteration is used with Russian is that in text messages you get more Latin characters for your money: usually 160 Latin characters per charged message versus 60/70 Cyrillic characters. Obviously the onus is on getting one Latin symbol (of which there are 26) for each Cyrillic symbol (of which there are 33 in Russian, and extra symbols in Ukrainian
Ukrainian language
Ukrainian is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet....
and other Cyrillic-based languages). Only those used for Russian are exemplified here.
(Where variants are given, the first is most common and the last is less common - although trends change quickly and differ from person-to-person.)
- А - a
- Б - b, 6
- В - v
- Г - g, r
- Д - d, g (only in fonts with opentail g)
- Е - e (and ye, je, occasionally in word-initial and post-vowel positions, as well as following ъ or ь)
- Ё - e, yo, jo
- Ж - zh, g, *, j, }I{
- З - z, 3
- И - i, u
- Й - i, y, j
- К - k
- Л - l
- М - m
- Н - n
- О - o
- П - p
- Р - r
- С - s, c
- Т - t, m
- У - u, y
- Ф - f
- Х - h, x, kh
- Ц - c, ts, "U,"
- Ч - ch, 4
- Ш - sh, w, 6, "LLI"
- Щ - sh, "W," , sch, shh, shch, shsh
- Ъ - ' (apostrophe), " (quote marks), [not transliterated]
- Ы - y, i, #
- Ь - ' (apostrophe), [not transliterated] - usually only transcribed with "ль"
- Э - e
- Ю - yu, u, iu, ju,
- Я - ya, R, ia, ja, q, 9