Transliteration Timeline:*
- 1885 — The American Library Association [ALA] creates a system for representing Cyrillic characters. No diacritics are used. (e.g. zh, kh, tch, sh, shtch, ye [for jat], yu, ya) Reverse transliteration is not considered.
- 1898 — The Prussian Instructions (Preussische Instruktionen [PI]) are created, which use a system of transliteration based on the Croatian model (with diacritics).
- 1909 — The ALA and British Library Association [BLA] allow for two systems, the ALA system and one based on Croatian.
- 1905 — Library of Congress creates their system, which is virtually identical to what is used today.
- 1917— The British Academy creates its own system. Like many other systems. It does not take into account reverse transliteration.
- 1930s— Central European and Scandinavian countries adopt the Prussian Instructions [PI]. This system was based on the Croatian model. Exceptions were made for German speaking countries, where "ch" was used instead of "h" for Cyrillic "x"
- In France the Bibliotheque Nationale adopts a purely phonetic rendering following French spelling conventions (transcription rather than transliteration).
- 1953 — The British Royal Society [BRS] creates another system, covering Russian, Serbian & Bulgarian (but not Ukrainian, Macedonian or Belorusian). It uses only two diacritical marks — for "?" and "?". It is closer to the LC system (minus many of the diacritics), but with "ya" and "yu" for "?" and "?"
- 1954 — The International Organization for Standardization [ISO] creates IS0/R9. Based on Croatian, this transliteration system is very close to the PI system.
- 1959 — The British Standards Institution [BS/BSI] rejects ISO/R9 (because of its reliance on multiple diacritics) and comes up with its own system: BS 2979. Very close to the British Royal Society system. (This system is used by Chemical Abstracts).
- 1976 — The American National Standards Institute [ANSI] publishes their system, nearly identical to the BSI system.
- 1968 — ISO/R9:1968 is relaxed to allow for the ANSI and BS 2979 systems (in certain countries).
- 1995 — ISO/R9:1995 reverts to to its initial standards, doing away with allowing "ch" or "kh" for Cyrillic "x."
*A good deal of this timeline is paraphrased from Wellisch's excellent book on the topic — Wellisch, Hans Hanan. The Conversion of Scripts, its Nature, History and Utilization. New York: Wiley, 1977.
Other transliteration/transcription schemes:
- Deutsches Institut fur Normung's system (used by the Deutsche Bibliothek and basically identical to ISO R9:1968) [DIN 1460 (1982)]
- Ãîñòàíäàðò Ðîññèè system (ST SEV 1362 [1978]), which is somewhat unlike anything else (representing "ù" with "shh," for example)
- Duden [1991], a purely phonetic system, based on German spelling conventions
- BGN [Board of Geographic Names] system, close to LC without diacritics, but focused more on phonetics ("å/¸;" as "å/¸" or "ye/y¸," "é" as "y," and "þ/ÿ" as "yu/ya")
- SR [ Slavic Review ] system. Historically the name of this system makes sense, but currently it is somewhat confusing, as the Slavic Review has since moved on to us the LC system. This system (obviously now little used) is quite close to ISO 9:1968 (with "kh" instead of "h," and òâ¸ðäûé çíàê as ' instead of ").
- MR [Mathematical Review/ Zentralblatt fur Mathematik ] system, also close to ISO 9:1968 (with "yu/ya" instead of "ju/ja," and "é" represented as "i" (with a bar over it) instead of "j" in ISO)
- NYPL (New York Public Library, Slavonic Division), which is closer to BGN, with minor differences ("¸" = "io," "ã" in adj. endings as "v," and "tz" for "ö")
- INIS system. Follows the LC system, but with "j" for "é," "eh" for "ý," and "ya/yu" for "ÿ/þ."
- BM [ British Museum ] system
- BE [Belgium, Regles cartographiques en usage a la Bibliotheque royale de Belgique ] system,
- CS [Czechoslovakia, Pravidla Jmenneho katalogu, 1969] system, based on the PI system.
- DK [Denmark, Katalogiseringsregler] system: more of a system of transcription with Danish spelling conventions
- FI [Finland, Suomen Tietellisten kirjastojen lisalvettelon luetteloimissaannot] system: more of a system of transcription with Finnish spelling conventions
- NO [Norway, Katalogiseringsregler for norske biblioteker] system: more of a system of transcription with Norwegian spelling conventions
- SW [Sweden, Katalogregler for svenska bibliotek] system: more of a system of transcription with Swedish spelling conventions
- VC [Vatican, Norme per il catalogo degli stampati] system: closer to the PI system.
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