Problem Areas of Modern Urban Planning in Global Space: Romanization of Russian Urbanonyms

The article deals with ongoing tasks of linguistic-geographical modeling of a modern city image, particularly that of rendering Russian-language messages of the urban landscape using the Latin alphabet. Giving a critical analysis of existing transliteration systems, the authors discuss general metho...

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Main Authors: Ivan V. Zots, Olga A. Suleimanova
Format: Article
Language:Russian
Published: Izdatelstvo Uralskogo Universiteta 2019-12-01
Series:Вопросы ономастики
Subjects:
Online Access:http://onomastics.ru/sites/default/files/doi/10.15826/vopr_onom.2019.16.4.049.pdf
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author Ivan V. Zots
Olga A. Suleimanova
author_facet Ivan V. Zots
Olga A. Suleimanova
author_sort Ivan V. Zots
collection DOAJ
description The article deals with ongoing tasks of linguistic-geographical modeling of a modern city image, particularly that of rendering Russian-language messages of the urban landscape using the Latin alphabet. Giving a critical analysis of existing transliteration systems, the authors discuss general methods of rendering street names (transcription, transliteration of urbanonyms, as well as the translation of classifiers in city street names) and their possible combinations. The current transliteration standards are considered, including GOSTs and orders of state bodies of the Russian Federation, adopted at different times and thus varying considerably in terms of norms they prescribe. The empirical evidence is constituted by the names of Moscow streets (more than 3,000 names) and metro stations presented in the register, on maps, and road signs of the city. The study relies on a series of interviews with speakers of different languages: iterative questions with the step-by-step identification of problematic letter combinations, analysis of possible methods of their rendering, followed by survey-based verification of results in a multicultural and multilingual environment. Supplementary sources included statistical data from English dictionaries with due consideration of phonetic features of the Russian and English languages, tradition and usage frequency of the variants found in documentary sources. As a result, general patterns of names rendering are identified and recommendations for individual letters and sounds of the Russian language are offered, justifying the choice between transliteration and practical transcription in different cases. Particular attention is given to urbanonyms that require a special context-driven translation. The authors also propose a strategy for classifiers rendering in favor of transliteration grounded by name usage evidence. The conclusions offer a practical contribution to the formation of a bilingual urban environment in Moscow and other cities of the Russian Federation.
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spelling doaj.art-fced3e3cea6a4569b975ce5afc48bab62022-12-21T17:18:13ZrusIzdatelstvo Uralskogo UniversitetaВопросы ономастики1994-24001994-24512019-12-0116413415010.15826/vopr_onom.2019.16.4.049Problem Areas of Modern Urban Planning in Global Space: Romanization of Russian UrbanonymsIvan V. Zots0Olga A. Suleimanova1Moscow State Pedagogical UniversityMoscow State Pedagogical UniversityThe article deals with ongoing tasks of linguistic-geographical modeling of a modern city image, particularly that of rendering Russian-language messages of the urban landscape using the Latin alphabet. Giving a critical analysis of existing transliteration systems, the authors discuss general methods of rendering street names (transcription, transliteration of urbanonyms, as well as the translation of classifiers in city street names) and their possible combinations. The current transliteration standards are considered, including GOSTs and orders of state bodies of the Russian Federation, adopted at different times and thus varying considerably in terms of norms they prescribe. The empirical evidence is constituted by the names of Moscow streets (more than 3,000 names) and metro stations presented in the register, on maps, and road signs of the city. The study relies on a series of interviews with speakers of different languages: iterative questions with the step-by-step identification of problematic letter combinations, analysis of possible methods of their rendering, followed by survey-based verification of results in a multicultural and multilingual environment. Supplementary sources included statistical data from English dictionaries with due consideration of phonetic features of the Russian and English languages, tradition and usage frequency of the variants found in documentary sources. As a result, general patterns of names rendering are identified and recommendations for individual letters and sounds of the Russian language are offered, justifying the choice between transliteration and practical transcription in different cases. Particular attention is given to urbanonyms that require a special context-driven translation. The authors also propose a strategy for classifiers rendering in favor of transliteration grounded by name usage evidence. The conclusions offer a practical contribution to the formation of a bilingual urban environment in Moscow and other cities of the Russian Federation.http://onomastics.ru/sites/default/files/doi/10.15826/vopr_onom.2019.16.4.049.pdfurban navigationbilingual urban environmenturbanonymsclassifiertransliterationtranscriptiongoststreet namestoponymic space
spellingShingle Ivan V. Zots
Olga A. Suleimanova
Problem Areas of Modern Urban Planning in Global Space: Romanization of Russian Urbanonyms
Вопросы ономастики
urban navigation
bilingual urban environment
urbanonyms
classifier
transliteration
transcription
gost
street names
toponymic space
title Problem Areas of Modern Urban Planning in Global Space: Romanization of Russian Urbanonyms
title_full Problem Areas of Modern Urban Planning in Global Space: Romanization of Russian Urbanonyms
title_fullStr Problem Areas of Modern Urban Planning in Global Space: Romanization of Russian Urbanonyms
title_full_unstemmed Problem Areas of Modern Urban Planning in Global Space: Romanization of Russian Urbanonyms
title_short Problem Areas of Modern Urban Planning in Global Space: Romanization of Russian Urbanonyms
title_sort problem areas of modern urban planning in global space romanization of russian urbanonyms
topic urban navigation
bilingual urban environment
urbanonyms
classifier
transliteration
transcription
gost
street names
toponymic space
url http://onomastics.ru/sites/default/files/doi/10.15826/vopr_onom.2019.16.4.049.pdf
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