"Template:Transl" redirects here. For the template for translated text, see Template:Translation.
This template is used on many pages and changes may be widely noticed. Test changes in the template's /sandbox or /testcases subpages, or in your own user subpage. Consider discussing changes on the talk page before implementing them.
This template is used to mark up text transliterated or romanised from a non-Latin alphabet script to Latin alphabet script.
This template should only be used for the transliterations of non-Latin scripts; for non-English language text displayed in its native script (such as Greek, Cyrillic and Arabic), {{lang}} should be used, which tags non-transliterated text (written in original script). Transliteration is often used alongside that template, to allow non-readers of the script to interpret the text.
This template adds a tooltip label naming the transliteration scheme, and renders text in italics by default. This template is important for MOS:ACCESSIBILITY, as it invisibly tags text with the correct language, allowing for screenreaders to use the correct style of pronunciation.
It also displays text in an appropriate font; romanisations marked up in {{lang}} may display in fonts designed for that language's native text, whereas the transl template displays text in the same font as the rest of the article.
Some languages, such as Chinese, have more than one style of transliteration (such as Wade–Giles, pinyin, etc). This template can be used for these different transliteration schemes, though Wikipedia has a number of language-specific templates, some of which support more than one transliteration styles in their parameters, that may be better suited for marking up transliterations.
This template is intended to unify all "transliteration" templates, such as {{IAST}} and {{ISOtranslit}}. These templates are still usable, but they just transclude or are redirected back to {{transl}}. For example, (e.g. {{IAST|saṃskṛtam}} is a shortcut for {{transliteration|sa|IAST|saṃskṛtam}}. Other transliteration templates that once existed, such as {{ArabDIN}}, are now handled natively by this template: {{transliteration|ar|DIN|...}}).
This template is kept separate from {{lang}} to address formatting issues (via CSS classes) and identification of transliteration schemes used. Ultimately, if these concerns are smartly addressed in the CSS file and/or in {{lang}}, using {{transliteration|xx|...}} should be equivalent to using {{lang|xx-Latn|...}}.
There are two ways of using this template: with or without specifying the transliteration scheme used:
two parameters, with ISO 639 language code: {{transliteration|ar|al-Khwarizmi}} means that "al-Khwarizmi" is a transliteration from the Arabic in a loose or unspecified scheme.
two parameters, with ISO 15924 script code: {{transliteration|Ogam|MAQI}} means that "MAQI" transliterates an Ogham inscription without specifying the language. Potentially useful when writing systems themselves are under discussion, e.g. {{transliteration|Cyrl|š}}, not {{transliteration|cu|š}} or {{transliteration|ru|š}} when discussing the letter Tɛmplet:Script.
three parameters, with ISO 639 language code: {{transliteration|ar|DIN|al-Ḫawārizmī}} / {{transliteration|ar|ALA|al-Khawārizmī}} the second parameter specifies the scheme used (DIN vs. ALA).
three parameters, with ISO 15924 script code: {{transliteration|Arab|DIN|Ḫ}} vs {{transliteration|Arab|ALA|Kh}} for Tɛmplet:Script.
|italic=no can be added to suppress the default italicization of Latin scripts; however, proper nouns – the names of people and places – are typically not italicized, and as such, generally do not require the use of a transliteration template. Note that there is no need to add italic markup ('') to transliteration templates.
Codes for supported transliteration schemes can be seen by viewing the source of Module:Lang/data – the translit_title_table data-structure lists for each such code the corresponding transliteration schemes. These may vary by language – e.g. code "ISO" means scheme ISO 233 for Arabic but ISO 11940 for Thai.
In order to apply a style to all text marked as transliteration, use a CSS selector that chooses all text with transliteration in the title attribute (tooltip). For instance, if you add the following to your common.css, all transliterations will be colored teal:
This is the TemplateData for this template used by TemplateWizard, VisualEditor and other tools. Click here to see a monthly parameter usage report for this template based on this TemplateData.
TemplateData for Transliteration
Marks a text span transliterated from a particular language or writing system, and, optionally, according to a specific transliteration system.
Template parameters
Parameter
Description
Type
Status
Language or script code
1
ISO 639 language code (e.g., uk) or ISO 15924 script code (e.g., Cyrl)
Unicode uses the "Property Value Alias" (Alias) as the script-name. These Alias names are part of Unicode and are published informatively next to ISO 15924. An alias script name may be used in a character name: Palm, Palmyrene → Error using {{unichar}}: Input "10860" is not a hexadecimal value..
