Reverse Transliterations ....

[Marie Genevieve Guesdon]

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>Date:         Fri, 12 Sep 1997 00:28:25 +0200
>Reply-To: Indology <INDOLOGY at LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK>
>Sender: Indology <INDOLOGY at LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK>
>From: pwyzlic <pwyzlic at PWYZ.RHEIN.DE>
>Subject:      Re: Reverse Transliterations ....
>To: INDOLOGY at LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK
>
>On Thu, 11 Sep 1997, Vidyasankar Sundaresan wrote:
>
>> Caukhamba Samskrta Siriza Aphisa (Series Office),
>> Gita/Niranayasagara/Bharati Presa (Press),
>[...]
>> Di Sankara Hal enda Sankara Institiut aph Philasaphi enda Kalcar
>> (The Sankara Hall and Sankara Institute of Philosophy and Culture)
>>
>> Shouldn't Western libraries think of ways to identify English words
>> written in Indian scripts, and rewrite them in standard English
>> spelling? An exception needs to be made only in the case of Akademi
>> (as in Sangeet Natak Akademi).
>
>I don't see harm in it. One of the main principles of book
>cataloging is -- as I understand it -- to represent the titlepage
>as it is and not what should be there. If the title is printed in
>Indian characters it makes sense to reproduce them in Roman
>transliteration and in a standardized way. With "aphisa" and
>"presa" and the like, though it might look funny at first sight.
>
>Of course the names of publishers or the series are not essential
>parts of the title like the author or the title of the work
>itself. But I think it breaks the principle of making a uniform
>transliteration of the title when changing "incorrect" to
>"correct" forms. You will never know where to begin and where to
>end.
>
>\bye
>Peter
>
>--
>Peter Wyzlic                                    pwyzlic at pwyz.rhein.de
>
>
Marie Genevieve GUESDON
Bibliotheque nationale de France
Departement des manuscrits, division orientale
58, rue de Richelieu
75084 Paris Cedex 02
tel 33-1-47 03 75 91
Fax 33-1-47 03 76 65
e-mail marie-genevieve.guesdon at bnf.fr