Cyrillization of Chinese

Cyrillization of Chinese
The cyrillization of Chinese is the transcription of Chinese characters into the Cyrillic alphabet.
The Palladius system is the official Russian standard for transcribing Chinese into Russian, with variants existing for Ukrainian, Belarusian, Bulgarian, and other languages that use the Cyrillic alphabet. It was created by Palladius Kafarov, a Russian sinologist and monk who spent thirty years in China in the nineteenth century.
Russian system
Initials
Note that because the Russian version of the Cyrillic alphabet has no letters for dz or dzh (although дз and дж are found in Bulgarian, and also ѕ and џ are found in Serbian and Macedonian Cyrillic), the digraphs цз and чж are used respectively.
Finals
In composites, coda ng is transcribed нъ when the following syllable starts with a vowel. For example, the names of the cities of Chang'an and Hengyang are transcribed as Чанъань and Хэнъян.
In syllables with no initial, w is transcribed as в in all cases except wu, transcribed as у. For example, the names of the cities of Wuwei (both Wuwei, Anhui and Wuwei, Gansu) and Wanning are transcribed as Увэй and Ваньнин.
Comparison chart
This table establishes correspondence between the Russian Palladius system together with the two Romanization systems most commonly used in English-speaking countries: Pinyin and Wade–Giles.
Exceptions
The names of the cities of Beijing and Nanjing are transcribed as Пекин (instead of Бэйцзин) and Нанкин (instead of Наньцзин), much as Peking and Nanking were still used in English speaking countries until recently. Hong Kong (pinyin: Xianggang) may be both Сянган (Xianggang) and Гонконг (Hong Kong); the latter is more common.
The syllable hui is transcribed not as хуй but as хуэй (Huizu, Хуэйцзу) or, less often, as хой (Anhui, Аньхой) for aesthetic reasons, since is a taboo word for "penis" in Russian and several other Slavic languages.
Older documents contain variants мэн — мын, мэнь — мынь, фэн — фын, фэнь — фынь, пэн — пын, hence Aomen (Macao) is traditionally spelled Аомынь in Russian. Most modern texts contain э, with some exceptions.
Ukrainian system
Initials
Finals
In composites, coda ng is transcribed н' when the following syllable starts with a vowel. For example, the names of the cities of Chang'an and Hengyang are transcribed as Чан'ань and Хен'ян.
In syllables with no initial, w is transcribed as в in all cases except wu, transcribed as у. For example, the names of the cities of Wuwei and Wanning are transcribed as Увей and Ваньнін.
Comparison chart
This table establishes correspondence between the Ukrainian Palladius system together with the two Romanization systems most commonly used in English-speaking countries: Pinyin and Wade–Giles.
Cyrillization with the Ukrainian alphabet differs from the Russian as follows:
е → є
э → е
г → ґ
и → і
in жи, чжи, чи, ши (ri, zhi, chi, shi) still и is used
Syllables without initial consonant start with ї (yi, yin, ying → ї, їнь, їн).
ы → и
ъ → ' (apostrophe)
Belarusian system
Cyrillization with the Belarusian alphabet differs from the Russian as follows:
ао, яо → аа, яа (in accordance with Belarusian akanye)
и → і
in ri, zhi, chi, shi there is ы (жы, чжы, чы, шы).
ъ → ' (apostrophe)
Serbian system
The Serbian system is rather different from the Russian: for example, j, q, zh are transcribed as ђ, ћ, џ; the Serbian letters ј, љ, њ appear where the Russian system uses я, е, ю, й; final n and ng are н and нг.
Macedonian system
Source:
Initials
Finals
W- and y- are transcribed as в- and ј-.
Table of cyrillization systems
Sample texts
See also
Palladius table
Dungan language
Taz language
Romanization of Chinese
Cyrillization of Japanese
References
External links
Automatic Cyrillic transliteration of pinyin
Annotation of Chinese with Palladius and other phonetic systems
Chinese
Transcription of Chinese
China–Russia relations