Transcription/transliteration

Raymond Brown scripsit:

> But on checking, I find that Classical Latin _(g)nasci (perfect part.
> (g)natus) could mean either "to be begotten" or "to be born", i.e. it could
> be used of generation by either parent.
Pretty much what I thought: the Romans thought of children as being gnatus ex
{either father or mother}.

> >Note that my transliterations are by ear, since there is no
> >transliteration method extant for Ecclesiastic Greek,
>
> No worries - I know exactly what the words are and mentally transliterated
> as I read   :)
Strictly speaking, this is transcription, not transliteration.  Transcription
is from one language to another, and uses the conventions of the target
language to represent the sounds of the source language, e.g.
saying that Latin "natus" is pronounced "NAH-toos".

Transliteration is from one *script* to another, and represents the tokens
of the source writing system using corresponding tokens of the target
writing system.  Wring "yennaos" would be transliteration only if
"y" was always used to transliterate "gamma", including such words
as "ayyelos". :-)

--
John Cowan                                   cowan@ccil.org
One art/there is/no less/no more/All things/to do/with sparks/galore
        --Douglas Hofstadter

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