Transliteration is the process of converting a word or text written in one script into another script, usually by representing the sounds of the original language through the characters of another script. It is a method used to represent foreign or non-Latin languages in a way that is easier for speakers of a different language to pronounce or understand. Transliteration aims to preserve the phonetic or sound values of words, rather than their actual meaning.
The goal of transliteration is to bridge the gap between languages with different writing systems, such as Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, Devanagari, Greek, Hebrew, or Korean, and provide an approximate representation of the pronunciation in a Latin or Roman script. This facilitates communication, especially in contexts like international trade, travel, scholarly research, or language learning.
Transliteration is different from translation, as it focuses solely on the phonetic representation of words rather than their meaning. For example, the Arabic word "سلام" can be transliterated as "salaam" in Latin script, although a translation of its meaning would be "peace". Similarly, the Chinese character "你好" can be transliterated as "nǐ hǎo" in Pinyin, the Romanization system for Chinese, although the translation to English would be "hello".
Overall, transliteration serves as a valuable tool in bringing together languages with different writing systems, enabling improved communication and understanding between diverse linguistic communities.
