[See § 36. This Report was made to the American Library Association in
1885, and printed in the Proceedings of the Lake George Conference, and
in the _Library journal_, 10: 302–8.]
In determining the principles of transliteration it must be remembered
that a catalogue is not a learned treatise intended for special
scholars, and bound to an erudite consistency, at whatever cost of
convenience. It is simply a key to open the doors of knowledge to a
partly ignorant and partly learned public, and it is very important
that such a key should turn easily. A good catalogue, therefore,
will be a compromise between the claims of learning and logic on the
one hand, and of ignorance, error, and custom on the other. Speaking
generally, that form of name must be chosen with which people now are,
_and in the future will be_, most familiar. This reference to the
future is important. The catalogue must not be in advance of its age;
but, on the other hand, it will not be well that it should be behind
the next generation. If, therefore, there is an evident current of
progress in any direction the makers of the catalogue will do well to
be a little before the present practice, in the hope that the world
will soon catch up with them, not to pass them before the catalogue
itself has been superseded by another. The larger the catalogue,
therefore, and the less likely to be soon reprinted, the more may it
venture to be ahead of the times. Nevertheless the maker will do well
to remember that the future is very uncertain.
One evident current of progress there is,— in favor of adopting
the continental value of the vowels, representing the _ou_ sound,
for instance, not by _ou_ nor by _oo_ (as does Dr. Thomas), but by
_u_; writing, therefore, Butan, not Boutan, nor Bootan, Turgenef
and not Tourgueneff; using also _a_ and not _ah_ for the sound of
_a_ in father, papa (I speak as a New Englander); using the _i_ for
the English _e_ sound; and giving what are unfortunately called the
corresponding short sounds by doubling the following consonant; thus
Nānā would be spelt with one n, but Nanny with two. This tendency,
which has been gathering strength for some time, has at last received
the sanction of an influential body, the Royal Geographical Society,
and can be followed with safety.
The following notes are taken mostly from Mr. Heilprin’s articles in
the _Nation_:
1. For ancient _Greek_ names use the Latin forms, _e. g._, Homerus not
Homeros, Plato not Platon, Philippus not Philippos. But where two forms
are in common use choose that which is nearest the Greek.
2. For _Egyptian_ names known to us through the Greek, both the Greek
and the Egyptian form (as Cheops and Shufu) should be given, with a
reference from the one which is not chosen for the main entry.
3. _Biblical_ names are to be written as we find them in the English
Bible, and the names of post-Biblical Jews, if derived from the
Scriptures, should retain their Anglicized form. On the other hand, a
strict transliteration is demanded of rabbinical and other more or less
pure Hebrew names which are not taken from Scriptures, and therefore
have no popular English forms, to which, again, there is an exception
in the case of a few celebrated Jewish authors, as Maimonides, where an
un-Hebrew form has been fully adopted in English literature.
East _Indian_ names have such long accepted forms that it might well
be doubted whether it will do to use any others. Cashmere, Mooltan,
Jellaleddin, Punjaub, have taken their places in literature and in the
popular mind. Nevertheless, as the better system which writes Kashmir,
Multan, Jalal ud Din, Panjab, is now adopted in most histories, in
all official documents, among others in Hunter’s great statistical
dictionary of Bengal, it is evident that it is the coming method, and,
in accordance with the {109} principles already laid down, we are
inclined to recommend this spelling rather than the clumsy English
fashion of the last generation.
All other _Asiatic_ and _African_ names should be transliterated
according to the rules of the Royal Geographical Society, which we
quote here from their Proceedings for August, 1885 (pp. 535, 536).
The Council of the Royal Geographical Society have adopted the
following rules for such geographical names as are not, in the
countries to which they belong, written in the Roman character. These
rules are identical with those adopted for the Admiralty charts, and
will henceforth be used in all publications of the society:—
1. No change will be made in the orthography of foreign names in
countries which use Roman letters: thus, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch,
etc., names will be spelt as by the respective nations.
2. Neither will any change be made in the spelling of such names in
languages which are not written in Roman character as have become by
long usage familiar to English readers: thus, Calcutta, Cutch, Celebes,
Mecca, etc., will be retained in their present form.
3. The true sound of the word, as locally pronounced, will be taken as
the basis of the spelling.
4. An approximation, however, to the sound is alone aimed at. A system
which would attempt to represent the more delicate inflections of sound
and accent would be so complicated as only to defeat itself.
5. The broad features of the system are, that vowels are pronounced as
in Italian and consonants as in English.
6. One accent only is used—the acute—to denote the syllable on which
stress is laid.
7. Every letter is pronounced. When two vowels come together each
one is sounded, though the result, when spoken quickly, is sometimes
scarcely to be distinguished from a single sound, as in _ai_, _au_,
_ei_.