Transcription is a method of phonetic names conversion between different languages, in which the sounds of a source language are recorded in terms of a specific target language and its particular script, normally without recourse to additional signs called diacritics. Examples:

Although transcription aims at giving the user a "pronounceable" name spelling, it is often only an approximation of the original pronunciation. This is because the sound structure of languages is different, and the sounds of a source language cannot always be recorded in the orthography of a target language. For example, an English speaker would not know how to pronounce certain Arabic sounds, like

that do not have counterparts in English.

This makes transcription linguistically imprecise and dependent on the orthography of a target language. Transcription is not normally a reversible process. If attempting to restore the source spellings of the examples given to the definition, the results could be different:

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Home
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Self study
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Conversion systems
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Contents
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Intro
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1.Solution
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2.Terminolgy
(a/b/c/d)
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3.UN approved systems
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4.Typology of conversion types