What is CyrTranslit?

A Python package for bi-directional transliteration of Cyrillic script to Latin script and vice versa.

By default, transliterates for the Serbian language. A language flag can be set in order to transliterate to and from Bulgarian, Montenegrin, Macedonian, Mongolian, Russian, Serbian, Tajik, and Ukrainian.

What is transliteration?

Transliteration is the conversion of a text from one script to another. For instance, a Latin alphabet transliteration of the Serbian phrase "Мој ховеркрафт је пун јегуља" is "Moj hoverkraft je pun jegulja".

Citation

A citation would be much appreciated if you use CyrTranslit in a research publication:

Georges Labrèche. (2023). CyrTranslit (v1.1.1). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7734906

BibTex entry:

@software{georges_labreche_2023_7734906,
  author       = {Georges Labrèche},
  title        = {CyrTranslit},
  month        = mar,
  year         = 2023,
  note         = {{A Python package for bi-directional 
                   transliteration of Cyrillic script to Latin script
                   and vice versa. Supports transliteration for
                   Bulgarian, Montenegrin, Macedonian, Mongolian,
                   Russian, Serbian, Tajik, and Ukrainian.}},
  publisher    = {Zenodo},
  version      = {v1.1.1},
  doi          = {10.5281/zenodo.7734906},
  url          = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7734906}
}

Supporting research

CyrTranslit is actively used as a reliable tool to advance research! Here's an incomplete list of publications for research projects that have relied on CyrTranslit:

• Ljajić, Adela & Prodanović, Nikola & Medvecki, Darija & Bašaragin, Bojana & Mitrović, Jelena. (2022). "Topic Modeling Technique on Covid19 Tweets in Serbian," in 12th International Conference on Information Society and Technology (ICIST), Kopaonik, Serbia.
• Mussylmanbay, Meiirgali. (2022). "Addresses Standardization and Geocoding using Natural Language Processing," Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan.
• Jokic, Danka & Stanković, Ranka & Krstev, Cvetana & Šandrih Todorović, Branislava. (2021). "A Twitter Corpus and Lexicon for Abusive Speech Detection in Serbian," in 3rd Conference on Language, Data and Knowledge (LDK 2021). 10.4230/OASIcs.LDK.2021.13.
• Lakew, Surafel Melaku (2020). "Thesis Multilingual Neural Machine Translation for Low Resource Languages," University of Trento, Italy.
• Filo, Denis. (2020). "Neuronový strojový překlad pro jazykové páry s malým množstvím trénovacích dat: Low-Resource Neural Machine Translation," Brno University of Technology, Brno, Czechia.
• Batanović, Vuk & Nikolic, Bosko. (2019). "Using Language Technologies to Automate the UNDP Rapid Integrated Assessment Mechanism in Serbian," in International Conference on Language Technologies for All: Enabling Linguistic Diversity and Multilingualism Worldwide (LT4All), Paris, France.
• Brown, J. M. M. & Schmidt, Andreas & Wierzba, Marta (Eds.). (2019). "Of trees and birds: A Festschrift for Gisbert Fanselow," Universitätsverlag Potsdam, Potsdam.
• Lakew, Surafel Melaku & Erofeeva, Aliia & Federico, Marcello. (2018). "Neural Machine Translation into Language Varieties," in 3rd Conference on Machine Translation: Research Papers, Brussels, Belgium.
• Ljajić, Adela & Marovac, Ulfeta. (2018). "Improving sentiment analysis for twitter data by handling negation rules in the Serbian language," Computer Science and Information Systems. 16. 13-13. 10.2298/CSIS180122013L.
• Жабран, И., Кикоть, А., Гафияк, А., Бородина, Е., & Алёшин, С. (2017). "Developing Q-Orca site backend using various Python programming language libraries," Modern Engineering and Innovative Technologies, 3(07-03), 48–53.

How do I install this?

CyrTranslit is hosted in the Python Package Index (PyPI) so it can be installed using pip:

python3 -m pip install cyrtranslit         # latest version
python3 -m pip install cyrtranslit==1.1.2  # specific version
python3 -m pip install cyrtranslit>=1.1.2  # minimum version

What languages are supported?

CyrTranslit currently supports bi-directional transliteration of Bulgarian, Montenegrin, Macedonian, Mongolian, Russian, Serbian, Tajik, and Ukrainian:

>>> import cyrtranslit
>>> cyrtranslit.supported()
['bg', 'me', 'mk', 'mn', 'ru', 'sr', 'tj', 'ua']

How do I use this?

CyrTranslit can be used both programatically and via command line interface.

Programmatically

Bulgarian

>>> import cyrtranslit
>>> cyrtranslit.to_latin("Съединението прави силата!", "bg")
"Săedinenieto pravi silata!"
>>> cyrtranslit.to_cyrillic("Săedinenieto pravi silata!", "bg")
"Съединението прави силата!"

Montenegrin

>>> import cyrtranslit
>>> cyrtranslit.to_latin("Република", "me")
"Republika"
>>> cyrtranslit.to_cyrillic("Republika", "me")
"Република"

Macedonian

>>> import cyrtranslit
>>> cyrtranslit.to_latin("Моето летачко возило е полно со јагули", "mk")
"Moeto letačko vozilo e polno so jaguli"
>>> cyrtranslit.to_cyrillic("Moeto letačko vozilo e polno so jaguli", "mk")
"Моето летачко возило е полно со јагули"

Mongolian

>>> import cyrtranslit
>>> cyrtranslit.to_latin("Амрагаа Сүнжидмаагаа гэсээр ирлээ дээ хө-хө-хө", "mn")
"Amragaa Sünjidmaagaa geseer irlee dee khö-khö-khö"
>>> cyrtranslit.to_cyrillic("Amragaa Sünjidmaagaa geseer irlee dee khö-khö-khö", "mn")
"Амрагаа Сүнжидмаагаа гэсээр ирлээ дээ хө-хө-хө"

Russian

>>> import cyrtranslit
>>> cyrtranslit.to_latin("Моё судно на воздушной подушке полно угрей", "ru")
"Moyo sudno na vozdushnoj podushke polno ugrej"
>>> cyrtranslit.to_cyrillic("Moyo sudno na vozdushnoj podushke polno ugrej", "ru")
"Моё судно на воздушной подушке полно угрей"

Serbian

>>> import cyrtranslit
>>> cyrtranslit.to_latin("Мој ховеркрафт је пун јегуља")
"Moj hoverkraft je pun jegulja"
>>> cyrtranslit.to_cyrillic("Moj hoverkraft je pun jegulja")
"Мој ховеркрафт је пун јегуља"

Tajik

>>> import cyrtranslit
>>> cyrtranslit.to_latin("Ман мактуб навишта истодам", "tj")
"Man maktub navišta istodam"
>>> cyrtranslit.to_cyrillic("Man maktub navišta istodam", "tj")
"Ман мактуб навишта истодам"

Ukrainian

>>> import cyrtranslit
>>> cyrtranslit.to_latin("Під лежачий камінь вода не тече", "ua")
"Pid ležačyj kamin' voda ne teče"
>>> cyrtranslit.to_cyrillic("Pid ležačyj kamin' voda ne teče", "ua")
"Під лежачий камінь вода не тече"

Command Line Interface

Sample command line call to transliterate a Russian text file:

$ cyrtranslit -l RU -i tests/ru.txt -o tests/output.txt

Use the -c argument to accomplish the reverse, that is to input latin characters and output cyrillic.

Use the -h argument for help.

You can also omit the input and output files and use standard input/output

$ echo 'Мој ховеркрафт је пун јегуља' | cyrtranslit -l sr
Moj hoverkraft je pun jegulja
$ echo 'Moj hoverkraft je pun jegulja' | cyrtranslit -l sr
Мој ховеркрафт је пун јегуља

You can test the "script" by running it directly on the Python command line interface, e.g.:

>>> import sys
>>> import cyrtranslit.cyrtranslit
>>> sys.argv.extend(['-l', 'UA'])
>>> sys.argv.extend(['-i', 'tests/ua.txt'])
>>> sys.argv.extend(['-o', 'tests/output.txt'])
>>> cyrtranslit.cyrtranslit.main()
>>> exit()

How can I contribute?

You can include support for other Cyrillic script alphabets. Follow these steps in order to do so:

1. Create a new transliteration dictionary in the mapping.py file and reference to it in the TRANSLIT_DICT dictionary.
2. Watch out for cases where two consecutive Latin alphabet letters are meant to transliterate into a single Cyrillic script letter. These cases need to be explicitly checked for inside the to_cyrillic() function in __init__.py.
3. Add test cases inside of tests.py.
4. Add test CLI input files in the tests directory.
5. Update the documentation in the README.md.
6. List yourself as one of the contributors.

Before tagging a release version and deploying to PyPI:

1. Update the version and download_url properties in setup.py.
2. Reserve a Zenodo DOI for the release and update this readme's Zenodo badge and citation instructions.

A big thank you to everyone who contributed:

• Bulgarian 🇧🇬: @Syndamia and @Sparkycz.
• Russian 🇷🇺: @ratijas and @rominf.
• Tajik 🇹🇯: @diejani.
• Ukrainian 🇺🇦: @AnonymousVoice1.
• Mongolian 🇲🇳: @Serbipunk.
• Command Line Interface (CLI): @ZJaume.