What is "romanization"

n. (alternative case form of Romanization English)

Romanization or Latinization (or romanisation, latinisation: see spelling differences), in linguistics, is the conversion of writing from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and transcription, for representing the spoken word, and combinations of both. Transcription methods can be subdivided into phonemic transcription, which records the phonemes or units of semantic meaning in speech, and more strict phonetic transcription, which records speech sounds with precision.

Romanization or Latinization (or Romanisation or Latinisation: see spelling differences)—in the historical and cultural meanings of both terms—indicate different historical processes, such as acculturation, integration and assimilation of newly incorporated and peripheral populations by the Roman Republic and the later Roman Empire. Ancient Roman historiography and Italian historiography until the fascist period used to call these various processes the " civilizing of barbarians".

Romanization is the representation in the Latin alphabet of a language normally written in another writing system. Some other meanings are as follows:

• Romanization (cultural), the expansion of Roman culture, law, and language
• Latinisation (literature), translation and adaptation of names into the Latin language
• Latinisation (USSR), the Latinization of languages inside the former USSR
• Romanization (religious), the practice of modifying other rites of the Catholic Church to more resemble the Latin (Roman) rite. The proper term is Liturgical Latinisation
• Representation in roman type of formerly italicized foreign words and phrases after they have become assimilated into English