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.