Romanization is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman/Latin script.
I focus on Cyrillic script, mostly Russian but I have also done Ukraininan and Belarusian. I can probably learn other Cyrillic based languages if needed.
I romanize in a special way, that is a combination of different methods. You might have trouble understanding how to pronounce my romanisations, since roman letters correspond to so many different sounds across the languages that use them.
Using Russian Cyrillic as an example here, since that is what I normally romanize.
| Cyrillic | Romanized by Dazhak |
|---|---|
| a | a |
| б | b |
| в | v |
| г | g |
| д | d |
| е | e/je |
| ё | jo |
| ж | zh |
| з | z |
| и | i |
| й | j |
| к | k |
| л | l |
| м | m |
| н | n |
| о | o |
| п | p |
| р | r |
| с | s |
| т | t |
| у | u |
| ф | f |
| х | h |
| ц | ts |
| ч | ch |
| ш | sh |
| щ | sh (Yes, I write them the same, I can't figure out what else to use...) |
| ъ | Whatever sound it summons |
| ы | y |
| ь | ' |
| э | e |
| ю | ju |
| я | ja |
The most noticable thing is that I use "j" for "й", since й sounds pretty much exactly like "j" does in Swedish. I chose this over "y" (commonly used in English romanisations) for a number of reasons. The biggest reason is that "y" is already used to represent "ы". Having two very different sound both be represented with one letter causes many problems.
Especially whenever "ы" and "й" come next to each other, which is most glaringly at the end of many adjectives. For example: Вечный, romanised using "y" for both "ы" and "й", becomes Vechnyy. How should one know not to pronounce these the same? The adjecive suffix "ий" also makes trouble. For example: Сладкий becoming Sladkiy. I am less put of by this, but the "y" still feels very random and just looks wrong to me. Not that "j" looks any better... to be fair you should just learn to read Cyrillic instead.
You might suggest romanising "й" as "i", which make most people pronounce it correctly. But as I said previously "ий" is a common suffix and using this method it is romanised as "ii", which causes the same confusion as "ый" becoming "yy".
Using "j" to represent this sound continues to be useful with "я", "ё" and "е", written as "ja", "jo" and "je", not "ya", "yo" and "ye".
Bascially everything else about my method is the same as standard English romanisation. I have enourmous hatred toward how the Swedish romanisation method goes about transliterating Russian cyrillic, but this j thing works out really good.
If you have a text in a language using Cyrillic script that you want romanized, e-mail me and I'll do it! I could use another method you prefer, if you don't like the way I interpret each letter's sound.
Below are some lyrics that I have romanized (and some translated!) that are free to use, but it would be nice to be credited!
Катюша (Katjusha)