Transliteration

Transliteration is the conversion of a text from one script to another.

For instance, the Greek phrase "Ελληνική Δημοκρατία" 'Hellenic Republic' can be transliterated as "Ellēnikē Dēmokratia" by substituting Latin letters for Greek letters.

Transliteration can form an essential part of transcription which converts text from one writing system into another. Transliteration is not concerned with representing the phonemics of the original: it only strives to represent the characters accurately. Thus, in the above example, λλ is transliterated as 'll', but pronounced /l/, and η is transliterated as 'ē', though it is pronounced /i/ (exactly like ι) and is not long.