ROMANIZATION OF THE UKRAINIAN ALPHABET

Romanization – is the representation of a word or language with Roman (Latin) alphabet or a system for doing so.

Romanization includes 2 methods: transcription and transliteration.

§ Transcription – is the substitution of sounds in the process of translation.

§ Transliteration – is the substitution of letters in the process of translation.

In most cases Romanization involves a compromise between transcription and transliteration.

There are 2 official systems of Romanization in Ukraine:

I. The Ukrainian National Transliteration System – was adopted by the Ukrainian Legal Terminology Commission on the 19^th of April 1996.

This system is based on English orthography (only English letters) and is widely used to represent Ukrainian geographical names, which were romanized from Russian before Ukrainian independence in 1991.

Provisions:

1) The use of the approved system is binding for the transliteration of Ukrainian names into English in official and legislative acts.

2) This system itself is not mandatory for the transliteration of foreign names into Ukrainian (it has only one-way direction Ukr-Eng).

3) Transliteration must be performed directly between Ukrainian and English without the use of any intermediary languages

ex. Odessa (from Russian) – Odesa (from Ukrainian)

4) This system allows a number of simplifications:

§ softening and apostrophe marks (ь/’) may be omitted in transliteration, except for ьо= ‘o / ьі= ‘i

§ Ukrainian letters which correspond to 2 Latin letters, if doubled in Ukrainian, may be transliterated as 1 Ukrainian letter

ex. Zapori zhzh ya – Zapori zh ya

5) The system includes a short list of official spellings:

Ukraine, Crimea (without the, not Ukrayina)

the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov

6) In certain cases, traditional forms may be given in parentheses () after the official variants:

ex. The traditional form Dnieper may be given after the official variant Dnipro: Dnipro (Dnieper)

 

Ukrainian letters	English letters	Notes	Examples
А	A
Б	B
В	V
Г	H, Gh	H – in most cases, Gh – when recreating “г” in combination “зг”	згинути
Г	G
Д	D
Е	E
Є	Ye, ie	Ye – at the beginning, ie – in other position	Yeltsin
Ж	Zh
З	Z
И	Y
І	I
Ї	Yi, i	Yi – at the beginning, i – in other position
Й	Y, i	Y – at the beginning, i – in other position
К	K
Л	L
М	M
Н	N
О	O
П	P
Р	R
С	S
Т	T
У	U
Ф	F
Х	Kh
Ц	Ts
Ч	Ch
Ш	Sh
Щ	Sch
Ь	’	may be omitted
Ю	Yu, iu	Yu – at the beginning, iu – in other position	Yushchenko
Я	Ya, ia	Ya – at the beginning, ia – in other position	Yanukovych
’	’	may be omitted

 

II. The Ukrainian Official Transliteration System for Personal Names in Ukrainian Passports – was adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers in 2007 (on 26 of June?).

According to this system:

The Ukrainian letters Г and Г’ are transliterated as G

Є – Ie (irrespective of the position) І – I Щ - Shch

Ю – Iu (irrespective of the position) Ї – I Ь – is not transliterated (ignored)

Я – Ia (irrespective of the position) Й – I ’ – is not transliterated (ignored)

20. THE TRANSLATOR’S FALSE FRIENDS

The translator’s false friends are words and expressions which have similar form but different meaning in the SL and in the TL. Their formal similarity is deceptive (оманлива) and may lead to translation mistakes.

The translator’s false friends are divided into 2 groups:

1. words similar in form but absolutely different in meaning (The Eng. magazine and the Ukr. магазин, lunatic - лунатик)

2. words similar in form but partially different in meaning (student–студент,учень,той,хто чимось цікавиться(of); bank – банк, берег (річки))

 

The translator’s false friends are not interchangeable due to the following factors:

1. the semantic factor which results from different historical development of such words in the SL and in the TL

minister – священик, посланник, член уряду

2. the stylistic factor which results from the difference in connotation (an ability to evoke negative/positive emotion) of such words in the SL and in the TL

ambitious - амбітний (The Eng. ambitious is positive and the Ukr. амбітний – used to be/was negative)

3. The colocability factor/ valency factor which results from the difference in combinability rules in the SL and the TL

defects – дефекти (The Eng. defects and the Ukr. дефекти – defects in the election campaign – прорахунки/ помилки у виборчій кампанії, but not дефекти)

4. The pragmatic factor which results from the difference in background knowledge in the SL and the TL speech communities

American Revolution – війна за незалежність США

coup d’etat – державний переворот

aspirant – кандидат, претендент

presidential ~ - кандидат на посаду президента

orale – бойовий дух

velvet – оксамит

the Emancipation Proclamation – Декл. про скасув. рабства

the Am. Revolution – Війна за незал. в Америці

Premier – прем’єр

~ Khrushchev – голова СРСР, генсек.. (бо перед прізвищем)

the Cuban Missile Crisis – Карибська криза

accord – угода, згода

Dutch – голландський

adept – знавець, експерт

ammunition – боєприпаси

decade – десятиріччя, 10 років

census – перепис населення

intelligence – інтелект, розум, розвідка

integrity – чесність

extravagant – непомірний, марнотратний (і екстрав.)

militia – ополчення, ополченці

assembly – зібрання (і асамблея)

pathetic – жалюгідний

partisan – упереджений, завзятий

invalid – недійсний, той,що немає законної сили

guerilla – партизан, повстанець

catholic – різносторонній

execution – страта