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Revision as of 16:26, 10 June 2011

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This is an essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Misplaced Pages contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Misplaced Pages's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints.

The following system of romanization of Russian from the Cyrillic to the Latin alphabet is currently endorsed by the Misplaced Pages naming conventions policy.

Use conventional names

When possible, use a conventional English name (as defined below) instead of the default romanization.

Place names

A conventional name of a place is the name listed in major English dictionaries and should be preferred over default romanization at all times. In particular, if major English dictionaries do not list the place, then default romanization should be used.

Clarifications

1. If a dictionary lists several variants of the name, use the main one.

   Example: use "Moscow", not "Moskva"

2. If different dictionaries list different main variants, use the one that's closest to the default romanization guidelines.

   Example: suppose one dictionary lists the city of Тольятти under "Tolyatti" and another one—under "Togliatti". "Tolyatti" should be used as it is the variant produced by the default guidelines.

3. The variant produced using the default romanization must be mentioned in the lead in parentheses after listing the Russian name.

   Example: Moscow (Template:Lang-ru, Moskva)...

4. The variant produced using the default romanization must be a redirect to the main article.

   Example: Sankt-Peterburg redirects to Saint Petersburg.

5. If such a redirect cannot be set up due to a collision of meanings, a disambiguation page entry should be created instead, pursuant to the Manual of Style for disambiguation pages.

   Example: Moskva cannot be a redirect to Moscow, but a link to "Moscow" is available at the "Moskva" disambiguation page.

6. Titles of disambiguation and name pages are always romanized using the default romanization.

   Example: the disambiguation page listing all the meanings of "Байкал" is to be located at Baykal (disambiguation), despite the fact that the most common English spelling of the primary meaning of the word (a lake in Russia) is "Baikal".

7. Names of places located in Russia must be romanized from Russian. If a place has a name in another official language, it is mentioned in the lead.

   Example: the name of the city of Чебоксары is romanized "Cheboksary". The Chuvash name "Shupashkar" is mentioned in the lead, but cannot be used as the main title.

   Rationale: spelling of names of Russian places used in English sources is normally derived from the name in Russian, as local languages are rarely employed in international communications.

People

A person's conventional name is defined by the criteria outlined below. When spelling is selected based on one of these criteria, it must be documented on the article's talk page or be readily apparent from the sources used in the article. In absence of verifiable documentation, romanization produced by the default guideline must be used.

1. If the person is an author of works published in English, the spelling of the name used in such publications should be used. When multiple spellings are used and no single spelling clearly predominates, use the one closest to the default romanization guidelines.
2. If the person's preference of spelling of his/her name in English is known and can be documented, that spelling should be used.
3. If the person is the subject of English-language publications, the spelling predominantly used in such publications should be used. A preference is given to publications in the area in which the person specializes. When no single spelling predominates, use the one closest to the default romanization guidelines.

   Example: the article on figure skater Александр Геннадиевич Зайцев is located at Alexander Gennadiyevich Zaitsev (not "Zaytsev"), because "Zaitsev" is the English spelling used by the International Skating Union, Figure Skating Federation of Russia, and in other publications about the person (ref).

4. Selecting the most frequently used variant based on a search engine test is not acceptable.
5. When in doubt, use the default romanization guidelines.
6. The default romanization variant must be mentioned in the lead in parentheses after listing the Russian name.

   Example: Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (Template:Lang-ru, Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachyov)...

7. The default romanization variant must be a redirect to the main article.

   Example: Nikita Khrushchyov redirects to Nikita Khrushchev.

8. If such a redirect cannot be set up due to a collision of meanings, a disambiguation or name page entry should be created instead, pursuant to the Manual of Style for disambiguation pages.
9. Titles of disambiguation and name pages are always romanized using the default romanization.

   Example: the name page listing people with the last name of "Зайцев" is to be located at Zaytsev, despite the fact that names of some people listed on the page are romanized differently (e.g., Alexander Gennadiyevich Zaitsev).

   Rationale: simplification of maintenance of disambiguation and name pages; consistency.

Clarifications

• It is important to remember that only the spelling of names used in the English-language sources should be considered. If a Russian person is widely known, for example, in France but virtually unknown in the English-speaking world, the title of the article about him/her should be romanized using the default romanization; French spelling should not be used.
  • French spelling can, however, be used if the person became a citizen of France and that spelling matches the person's official name.
• Same condition applies to the personal choice of spelling—it should only be used when the person in question has a clear and documentable preference for the English spelling of his/her name.
• In absence of documentation supporting one of the criteria of conventionality, articles can be moved to the spelling produced using the default romanization guidelines. Editors performing such moves are encouraged to leave a notice on the articles' talk pages soliciting documentation/sources and allowing a reasonable amount of time to get a response.

Default romanization rules

The following table describes a method to derive romanization of Russian names into the Latin alphabet, used in English Misplaced Pages and suitable for Anglophones.

It is a modification of the BGN/PCGN romanization system. The modifications include the following rules:

• ё becomes yo;
• hard sign (ъ) is omitted;
• soft sign (ь) is omitted, except before a non-iotated vowel (а, э, ы, и, о, у), where it becomes y;
• -ый endings become -y;
• -ий endings in adjectives of Russian origin can optionally be changed from -iy to -y.

Notes

Abbreviations are usually romanized with capitalization as indicated, e.g., ДШК = DShK.

Default romanization table

See also

• Romanization of Russian
• Misplaced Pages:IPA for Russian
• Misplaced Pages:Naming conventions (Cyrillic)

• Misplaced Pages essays
• Misplaced Pages naming conventions