Adequate Latin for Russian language

Who needs to write Russian words in Latin letters and why?

Of course, it is necessary for Russian-speaking people. Obviously, the idea of ​​foreigners reading Latin letters on a street sign and immediately understanding what they mean is a huge exaggeration. Foreigners do not need Russian-language Latin. We, the people who speak Russian, need it.

First of all, an adequate standard is needed for converting names and titles for international documents. Obviously, passports, driver's licenses and even business cards should have normal names, written according to the rules of the Russian language, and not English, German or French. Currently, Russia and Kazakhstan use the conversion standard from the British Geographical Society, which was adopted centuries ago and was intended for populated areas, not names. And the goal was to distinguish them from English names, so, for example, instead of the obvious letter H for the Russian X, they use KH – two letters that native English speakers cannot read, since their language does not have such a letter. And Russian does not have such a letter either. This standard is not suitable for normal use. It does not even always treat the same letters the same way: Ц can turn into C or TS. And the letter Ё most often becomes the letter E.

The second area of ​​use is the Internet and any software and hardware systems where it is customary to use Latin letters. There is such a concept as “Human-Readable URL” – abbreviated as CHPU. It is used for the convenience of the user, who can understand the contents of the site page from its address. Now this format is not standardized and a lot of options appear, which, to be honest, are still more similar to the standards for translating Russian-language names for documents into Latin. For programmers, it can sometimes be convenient to name functions, variables, tables, etc. using Russian words, but this has to be done in Latin letters. For this, a single adequate standard is also very much needed, which conveys the features of the Russian language, and not some other, as is happening now.

Will adequate Latin be suitable for other languages ​​with Cyrillic alphabet?

It seems that the idea used to adequately convert Russian words to Latin will not work for most other languages ​​with the Cyrillic alphabet. Each language must be considered separately, and the peculiarities of Russian spelling of words are not similar to other languages ​​that use the same alphabet, so this principle of conversion cannot be used.

Is it possible to use rules from other languages ​​to convert Russian to Latin?

Sure. The general principle is simple: letters that sound similar should be used for their intended purpose. But if some letters or letter combinations can be simplified, there is no point in borrowing complex rules from other languages ​​that are not related to Russian. There is no point in writing two or three letters to describe one sound just because that is how it is done in another language (SH for the Ш sound in English or SCH for Ш in German).

General description of the idea of ​​converting Russian words into Latin letters

There is an important feature in the Russian language, which is reflected in writing by using a non-obvious (but familiar to everyone) method: the softness and hardness of consonants is regulated by the following vowel. In Russian, there is no division of vowels into hard and soft, although there are always soft and always hard consonants that are not affected by the following vowels: Й, Ч, Щ – always soft; Ж, Ц, Ш – always hard.

If we refuse to use special vowel letters to indicate the softness of consonants, then the translation of the Russian language into Latin becomes very simple and variable. The main problem with Latin is the “insufficient number” of vowels, which are half as many as in Russian. However, if we consider that the letters E, Ё, И, Ю, Я are composite (with the sound Й) and use the function of softening the consonant, then Latin vowels become sufficient for painless writing of Russian words.

Therefore, it only remains to choose the method of how the softness of the consonant in the word will be indicated. There are two ways: using an auxiliary letter and using superscript and subscript elements. It seems that using an additional letter will be simpler and more convenient, but this may entail some features that lead to the creation of additional rules-exceptions for such writing. Therefore, the first method, with additional “dots” at soft consonants.

The symbol above the letter denotes its absence

It doesn't matter at all whether it's a dot, a vertical or horizontal line, a tail, a symbol similar to the stress from a textbook, above or below – they all denote the softness of a consonant. The function of giving softness leaves vowels and returns to its rightful place.

The vowels A, O, U, Ы, Э turn into the obvious A, O, U, I, E. Of course, here the first exceptions appear:

• At the beginning of a word, the letter I always means И, since in Russian there are no words that begin with Ы;

• At the beginning of a word, the letter E always means Э, since words that begin with the Russian E must be written using two letters: YE.

The letters E, Ё, Ю, Я turn into YE, YO, YU, YA when they are at the beginning of a word, after a vowel, hard or soft sign. The letter И remains I, without adding Y, since the Й sound is absent from it.

In this way, we automatically eliminate the need to use a hard sign: podyezd. The soft sign in the middle of the word also disappears: usṯye. The function of separating the soft and hard signs is performed by the letter Y. The hard sign itself now exists only to “cancel” the softening function provided by the letters E, Ё, И, Ю, Я. Therefore, this method using Y removes an unnecessary rule.

Letters E and Ё

These letters are often not distinguished in writing. This is very bad for surnames and names. Of course, the alternation of the letters E and Ё in words with the same root will not look very “nice” when converted, although in Russian writing everything is more or less in order with them: ожеж, ёжи — but yoj, yeji. This cannot be considered a problem, since the alternation of vowels in the roots of words is quite common: непитаемым, but pontsetsya; избеду, but завязить; выдеру, but vyderut’; zamerli, but zamirat’, etc.

Exclusion of exceptions

When using such rules for converting to Latin, taking into account the knowledge that some consonants are always soft and some are hard, there are no longer any problems with writing words: circus, zinc, digit, chicken, gypsy, compass, etc. They will always be written using the Latin letters C and I.

The same applies to the rules of Zhi-Shi, Cha-Shcha, Chu-Shchu. Of course, there is no unmotivated choice of one or another letter, but it is still much more convenient when there is only one vowel – I, and there can be no other option.

The words jury, brochure, parachute become adequate: they will be written exactly as they are pronounced: juři, broxura, paraxut.

Letter Sh

One letter is better than two or three. Therefore, it is necessary to reduce everything possible. That is why the letter Ш should be turned into one letter. If you study the issue, it turns out that after using all the obvious consonants that coincide in the Russian and Latin alphabets, there are several available for use: Q, X, W (or V).

I would immediately like to discard W, which can play the role of the letter V if someone makes a mistake when writing. And although it may visually resemble Ш, its correct reading by unprepared users is practically impossible.

The situation with the letters Q and X is less obvious: Q can be read as K (and we already have one). But the letter X is the most difficult to read as IKS, since it is almost never used in Latin-based languages.

It is this fact that seems convenient for using X as the letter Ш. Moreover, as it turns out, the symbol X (the Greek letter KSI) in Spanish translations of Arabic replaced the Arabic sound Ш. And it is from these translations that X gets into the Latin alphabet. In some words of Portuguese and in Mexican Spanish, the letter X stands for the sound Ш. Of course, historical reasons are not an argument, but using a rare letter, which is used very little, instead of two or three symbols seems a reasonable use of “free space”.

It is obvious that Щ is a soft version of Ш, and therefore is supplemented with a “dot”: kladovx̱ik, obx̣iy, yax̰ik, ẍuka, zapravx̌ik — and here, too, any symbol is suitable.

Letters C and Ch

The letter Ц should be converted simply and obviously — to C. As in the Latin alphabet. Replacing it with the letters TS makes no sense. It only confuses and adds exceptions.

Since the letter Ц is always hard and Ч is always soft, it is logical to make a pair of them by analogy with Ш and Щ. Of course, they do not sound similar, but the “special C” looks more familiar due to the influence of West Slavic languages. Therefore, počta seems quite logical, and it is somewhat more difficult to see in the word частка, for example Q — poqta.

Letters Ж and Й

Since the letter J is called ЖИ in the Latin alphabet, there is no point in looking for special letter combinations (ZH is not an English variant, but a variant from the British Standard for spelling Russian localities). It is possible that there will be some difficulties, since J is used to denote Й in many European languages. But, as was said above, focusing on a specific language that is not Russian makes no sense if it brings inconvenience and adds exceptions.

When using J as the sound Ж, there is only one adequate candidate for the letter Й – Y. In addition to the letter Й itself, the Latin Y will replace “complex” vowels where appropriate. That is, in E it will become YE if it is at the beginning of a word or after a hard sign. With the letter Y, everything becomes very simple: yama, yenot, yolka, yula.

Letters E and E

If a word begins with E, then there will be a Latin E: eto, ekvator, ekzam̭en. The sound E is not very common in the middle of a word in Russian, and it is usually denoted by the Russian letter E, which is why there are discrepancies in the pronunciation of some words: rating, scanner. And sometimes there are direct exceptions: highway, pince-nez. With an adequate translation of these words into Latin, you can choose the correct option immediately, and leave no room for imagination: reyṭing (RATING), skañer (SCANNER), xosse (SHOSSE), p̌ensne (PENSNE). Although, if these words appeared in Russian, which has a Latin alphabetical basis, then there would be no problem: most likely, the words would remain in their original spelling.

But can we add an exception? In Russian, the letter Э is very rarely found in the middle of a word, which means that the Latin E almost always softens the previous consonant? Yes, that's true. But we'll leave this approach for the second way displays when for some reason you don’t want to use “dots”.

Is it possible to stay within the Latin alphabet and not use additional elements?

Sure. The simplest thing is to use the rules above and just not add “dots”. This text will remain readable, but will be less convenient for full use. But there is another option, which, however, will add new exceptions.

The simplest option is to use a separate letter to soften consonants and place it immediately after the “standard” hard vowel. As was said above, if you adequately translate letters from the Russian language into the Latin alphabet, then several letters remain: Q, W, X.

But the letter X is already used to represent the letter Ш. The letter W is too similar to V in meaning. The letter Q seems awkward and illogical. What if we look at other languages? The letter H seems appropriate: in German it is not pronounced if it comes after a vowel, in English it is almost not pronounced at the beginning of a word, the same in French, and in Portuguese it perfectly regulates L and N, making them soft!

So, I will use H to combine the letters in agreement

Here we automatically have CH denoting the letter Ч (as we all secretly wanted). The letter Щ becomes almost an elite XH. But after J and Y the letter H is no longer necessary – they are not softened.

Of course, there are problems. The word Сходить will be written with the letters shodhith, which can be read as СёДить, if you follow the rules. But if there is no such word (and there is no “сёдить”), then there will be no duality in understanding. In general, there are quite a few exceptions, but they do not lead to unreadable text. Moreover, the Russian letter Х is not very common in the language. Moreover, it is rare when it comes immediately after a consonant. Here is a list of words that I managed to quickly find:

alchemy — alhimhiya — can be read: alhimiya
archaeologist — arheolog — areologist
sorcerer — volhv — volv
entrance — vhod — ved
collective farm — kolhoz — wheels
melancholy — melanholhiya — melanyoly
mosses (plural moss) — mhi — mi
mkhe (pre-modern moss) — mhe — me
necessity — nheobhodhimosth — indispensability
girth — obhvat — girth
to laugh out loud — obhohotaca— to laugh out loud
synchronously — sinhronno — sinironno
special storage – spechran – spechran
scheme — shema — sema
schooner — xhuna — schooner
to sneeze — nachhath — to start (but Ч is always soft, therefore, taking into account the rules, such a word should be read correctly)

And there are also a large number of words with the root “khod”. Obviously, the misread words are not existing words, except for the word mi, which means the name of a note.

But how to soften the H itself? You can use a double: HH. But it is better to introduce an additional rule:

• HI, HE – always soft;

• HA, HO, HU – always firm.

Of course, there are exceptions:
hard HE will be in the words: two-story, three-story, four-story, super-elegant, super-enthusiasm and words with super-.

If we accept some words with the Russian letter X after consonants as exceptions that need to be remembered, then it seems that the ambiguity arises only in the word mhi: it can be the note mi, and it can be the word mhi (plural moss). It seems that the contexts are so far apart that such an exception can be allowed, therefore mi and mhi are written the same way: mhi. Of course, the word we turns into mi.

If H comes after a vowel, it is read as Russian Х. After all, vowels are not softened. Here are some examples: vihod, zahod, moheroviy, na vdohe, v sumatohe.

With the words xosse and phensne there are no problems again: in xosse there is no softening H, which means it is ШОССЭ, in phensne in the first syllable the H softens the sound П, and the absence of H in the second syllable leaves the hardness of the Russian letter H, which means it is ПЕНСНЭ.

Can we add more rules and exceptions?

Sure. They're easy to invent. A new rule almost always guarantees a new exception.

As was said above, the letter E is rarely found in the middle of a word. And even where E is pronounced (highway, pince-nez), the Russian letter E is written. Therefore, it can be assumed that the Latin E in the middle of a word always softens the previous consonant, and exceptions will need to be remembered. Of course, the letters J, C, X (Ж, Ц, Ш) are not softened.

The letter E in the middle appears mainly in abbreviations, abbreviated and foreign words:

emotionless
energy-free
meringue
vasectomy
prisoner
quintessence
cyberevolution
cache
flash mob
laptop
label
mainstream
mayor
City Hall
master
NEP
regional power company
plein air
peer
Electronic warfare
racket
sanitary and epidemiological supervision
sanitary and epidemiological station
forensic expert
teenager

Or maybe soften it with another letter?

W might not look too scary, especially considering the “always soft E”. But it can be confused with V. You can use X, and instead of it for Ш use W. Words with many X look fun, but this letter looks like a special symbol, and when there are many crosses, the word seems wrong. Moreover, it becomes more difficult to read it the first time. You can use Q, which sometimes even looks cute, but is difficult to read: pqivo, krqivo.

After several attempts to write the text with other letters to soften it, it turned out that the version with H was more readable (or maybe just more familiar from other languages).

Which option is better?

When writing by hand, the best option is definitely the one with fewer letters. That is, the option with “dots”. Especially since it gives almost unlimited possibilities for font design. But handwriting is rare now, and adding special characters to text that is typed on the keyboard is not so easy (I would like automatic substitution using the keyboard driver). “Dotted” is easier to read, it has fewer rules and exceptions, but it requires software add-ons to the interfaces of operating systems and text editors. A disadvantage may be the use of a dot at the end of a word, if it is the last in a sentence or after any punctuation mark: it may visually seem that an extra dot has been printed. But no one says that it must be a dot. You can use a wavy line, an arc, a vertical or horizontal line.

The option with the letter H is convenient if you want to switch to writing texts in Latin right now. If you need to use precise CNC. If you want to name multilingual programs with Russian words.

Both options can be used interchangeably. Possibly, provided that the “always soft E” is not used. But its use greatly increases convenience.

You can even use both if the situation allows. It's pointless, but can be an interesting design solution for short phrases or single words.

When can I start using this Latin alphabet?

At any time. No need to wait for someone to pass a law on translating Russian into Latin. We don't need translation. There just needs to be an alternative tool for its tasks:

• for use on the Internet;

• for devices without Russian layout;

• for the brand name;

• for programming;

• dfor writing names;

• for designer delights.

This is just the beginning

You can't accept the bad option that the old Englishmen suggested. You need to look for a good one. Even if the search is long and not always productive.

The concept of “softening consonants” more accurately shows the peculiarities of the Russian language and allows to reduce the number of letters used. It is possible that other methods for simple and short recording of Russian words in Latin letters will appear.

It’s good when everyone can formulate the main idea and derive the rules so that it’s possible to discuss and choose the most successful option: short and clear.