Transliterator – Multilingual Cyr-Lat Script Converter

FAQ

What is Romanization or Latinisation?

Romanisation or Latinisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of writing from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and transcription, for representing the spoken word, and combinations of both.

Which Romanization does this plugin support?

This plugin supports several world letters written in Cyrillic and enables their Romanization

• Romanization of Serbian what include Bosnian and Montenegrin
• Romanization of Russian
• Romanization of Belarusian
• Romanization of Bulgarian
• Romanization of Macedonian
• Romanization of Kazakh
• Romanization of Ukrainian
• Romanization of Greek
• Romanization of Arabic (EXPERIMENTAL)
• Romanization of Armenian (EXPERIMENTAL)

Each of these transliterations is created separately and follows the rules of the active language.

What is the best practice for transliteration?

Through various experiences, we came to the conclusion that it is best to create the entire site in Cyrillic and enable transliteration for Latin.

The reason for this solution lies in the problem of transliteration of Latin into Cyrillic due to encoding and, depending on the server, can create certain problems, especially in communication with the database. Creating a site in Cyrillic bypasses all problems and is very easily translated into Latin.

Is Latin better for SEO than Cyrillic?

According to Google documentation and discussions on forums and blogs, it is concluded that Latin is much better for SEO and it is necessary to practice Latin at least when permalinks and file names are in Latin, while the text can be in both letters but Latin is always preferred.

Can I translate Cyrillic letters into Latin with this plugin?

YES! Without any problems or conflicts.

Can I translate Latin into Cyrillic with this plugin?

YES! This plugin can translate a Latin site into Cyrillic, but this is not recommended and often causes problems. It is suggested that this approach be approached experimentally.

The best practice is to create a Cyrillic site including all other content and in the end just add transliteration to navigation so that the visitor can choose the desired script.

How to transliterate Cyrillic permalinks?

This plugin has a tool that transliterates already recorded permalinks in your database. This option is safe but requires extra effort to satisfy SEO.

With this tool, you permanently change the permalinks in your WordPress installation and a 404 error can occur if you visit old Cyrillic paths.

Therefore, you must re-asign your sitemap or make additional efforts to redirect old permalinks to new ones, which our plugin does not do.

If you are using WP-CLI, this function can also be started with a simple shell command: wp transliterate permalinks

How can I define my own substitutions?

You can customize the transliteration process by defining your own substitutions directly in your theme’s functions.php file. This is done by using filters specific to the language you want to modify.

To create custom substitutions, use the following filter:

add_filter( 'transliteration_map_{$locale}', 'function_callback', 10, 1 );

Here’s an example for Serbian (sr_RS) that demonstrates how to modify both single letters and multiple-letter combinations.

/*
  * Modify conversion table for Serbian language.
  *
  * @param array $map Conversion map.
  *
  * @return array
  */
function my_transliteration__sr_RS( $map ) {

    // Example for 2 or more letters
    $new_map = [
        'Ња' => 'nja',
        'Ње' => 'nje',
        'Обједињени' => 'Objedinjeni'
    ];
    $map = array_merge($new_map, $map);

    // Example for one letter
    $new_map = [
        'А' => 'X',
        'Б' => 'Y',
        'В' => 'Z'
    ];
    $map = array_merge($map, $new_map);

    return $map;
}
add_filter( 'transliteration_map_sr_RS', 'my_transliteration__sr_RS', 10, 1 );

In this example:
– The first $new_map array defines substitutions for combinations of two or more letters.
– The second $new_map array defines substitutions for individual letters.

This custom mapping will override the default transliteration rules for the specified language (sr_RS in this case).