Practical Belarusian Transcription of Proper Names and Place Names from the Greek Language

Abstract

Existing transcriptions of Greek proper and place names used in Belarusian scientific, historical, and fiction literature are quite unsystematic and not regulated by any commonly accepted norms. Regardless of the origin of texts which contain ancient Biblical names, translators of official publications often use our neighbours’ variants, usually Russian or Polish, or try to create their own transcriptions of these names. Lack of appropriate standards complicates and slows down efforts of Belarusian Biblical translators. This article is an attempt to normalise Scriptural Greek terminology in the Belarusian language.