Wikipedia:Naming conventions (Cyrillic)

This page documents the current usage of names in the Cyrillic alphabet, and transliteration of those names in Wikipedia. This is not a recommendation. Discuss proposed recommendations at Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (Cyrillic).

Languages covered: Belarusian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Serbian, Ukrainian.

There are also many non-Slavic languages which use the Cyrillic alphabet.

Current policies

• Wikipedia:Naming conventions#Russian names
• Wikipedia:Naming conventions#Ukrainian names

Usage

1. If a name or word has a conventional English spelling, that is used (see #Conventional names, below)
2. In linguistics topics, scholarly transliteration is used
3. Otherwise, the conventional transliteration method for a language is used (see below)
4. Generally, Cyrillic is provided only where transliteration alone cannot convey the original spelling. Since many of the conventional systems are non-deterministic, this means that very often both the Cyrillic and transliteration are provided in a word's first occurrence in an article.

Belarusian

1. Where that spelling is established in English, the established English name is used.
2. Elsewhere it is written in the Łacinka alphabet

Bosnian

1. Latin spelling is used

Bulgarian

1. The Official Bulgarian method is preferred.

Macedonian

1. May be written as Serbian, with
   1. dz for ѕ
   2. ć for ќ
   3. đ for ѓ.

... as well as:

1. 1. ḱ for ќ
   2. ǵ for ѓ.

[It seems that the first version is often used because of common cultural space during the existance of Socialist Yugoslavia. The second version is identical to the ALA/LC transliteration, except Cyrillic х is h in Serbian, while ALA/LC transliterates it as x. Is there an official standard?]

Russian

1. Russian is transliterated using a modified BGN/PCGN system; details at Wikipedia:Romanization of Russian.

Serbian

1. Latin spelling is used

Ukrainian

Modern political entities

1. Article titles and names in article bodies are transcribed using the simplified official National system
2. In articles' nomenclature lines, the full official National system is used

Other proper names

1. Article titles and proper names in article bodies are transcribed using a conventional method, similar to the Russian (above)
   • ye, ya, yu are used where they define syllables
   • ie, ia, iu are used where only palatalization is indicated
   • doubled letters remain doubled
   • [-ій and -ий endings?]

All other words

1. Ukrainian in articles' nomenclature lines and regular words in article bodies are transliterated using a more disciplined method
   • ь becomes an apostrophe (’)
   • the apostrof (’) becomes a double apostrophe (”)
   • [-ій and -ий endings?]

See also a note on Unicode characters disignated for the transliteration of Cyrillic soft and hard signs.

Other languages

• Old Church Slavonic [scientific transliteration would be appropriate in articles about this extinct language]
• Modern Church Slavonic
• Non-Slavic languages: as for Russian [what about the extra characters].

See also Transliteration of Kyrgyz into English.

Conventional names

When something has a conventional name in English, use that name instead of transliterating. Conventionally-used names may stem from various sources:

• They may be anglicized versions, e.g., Aleksandr→Alexander, Iosif→Joseph, Moskva→Moscow.
• They may be transliterated by a different system, or for another language, e.g., Rossiya→Rossija, Rus→Rus’, Chaykovskiy→Tchaikovsky.
• They may be simplified, more familiar-looking, or easier to pronounce for English-speakers, e.g., Gorbachyov→Gorbachev, Kray→Krai, Khrushchyov→Khruschev, Yuriy→Yuri.
• They may be names borrowed from Russian through another language, e.g., Petergof→Peterhof.

See also

• Romanization
• Transliteration
• Wikipedia:Naming conventions/Geographic names

• ISO 9
• Scientific transliteration, or Scholarly transliteration

• Belarusian
  • Romanization of Belarusian
  • Łacinka alphabet

• Bosnian

• Bulgarian
  • Bulgarian language#Alphabet
  • Romanization of Bulgarian

• Macedonian

• Russian
  • Russian alphabet
  • Romanization of Russian

• Serbian
  • Serbian language#Alphabets

• Ukrainian
  • Ukrainian alphabet
  • Romanization of Ukrainian
  • Ukrainian Latin alphabet

External links

• Style Sheet for Authors of the Slavic and East European Journal—an example guideline for transliteration, translation, and naming
• Linguistics Style Sheet of Ohio State University Slavic Studies (PDF)—Scientific transliteration for various languages is shown in a table on p. 4.