Author(s): Srđan Janković / Language(s): Croatian,Serbian
Issue: 3-4/1976
The problem of transcription belongs in the domain of language standardization, but has thus far received almost no theoretical attention. There are two basic meanings of the term transcription: the first is »special notation of speech for linguistic purposes«, and within this first meaning we recognize phonetic transcription (narrow and broad), phonological transcription, and international phonetic transcription (the IPA system); the second meaning relates to transcription as an orthographic procedure of the standard language, which constitutes the topic of this article. The author states that transcription always has one direction: from the source-language (which may be any basic socio-linguistic type among possible language idioms, and not only the standard language) to the target-language (which is exclusively the standard language). The correspondence between the appropriate elements, the sound and graphic ones, may be established only on the basis of phonetic, and then also of graphic similarity; phonetic adaptation is to be effected towards the target-language with a minimum of change according to the principle of the nearest phonetic equivalent. At the same time, the orthographic solution must be paralleled with an orthoepical solution in each particular case. In the process of transcription the phenomenon of language-mediator must be ruled out. In transliteration as a process of substitution of letters of one writing system by letters of another system, the correspondence among appropriate graphemes is nevertheless established on the basis of their sound values, so that here, too, we have a specific aspect of transcription. As distinct from foreign appellatives, which enter as adapted elements into the system of the target-language as loanwords (Lehnwort) or foreign words (Fremdwort), foreign proper names do not enter into its system but have the status of »permanent visitor«. This is attested in transcription too. In the case that two graphic systems of the same type (say Latin) are involved, there is the simple possibility, in transcribing names, to take over the graphic notation of the source language, which is generally practiced in West-European languages. As for Serbocroatian, the practice is of two types: in the Cyrillic usage, and partly in the Latin usage, phonetic adaptation is practiced (»phonetic spelling«), whereas in the Latin usage the source graphic notation is generally applied (»etymological spelling«). There also exists a possibility for complementary usage of these two methods of transcription, for which criteria need to be worked out. The author stresses a principled difference between names taken over and adapted long ago and contemporary original names taken over from the same language, which, however, do not enter into the system of the recipient language. This is illustrated by Muslim names of Arabic provenance in the Serbocroatian language on the one hand, and contemporary Arabic original names in the Serbocroatian transcription on the other. In the conclusion it is stated that each particular source language must be approached differentially, especially if lesser known languages are at stake. It is necessary to establish a special transcribing strategy and procedures in relation to each source-language.
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