外國地名譯寫作法之探究

Conversion Practices for Foreign Place Names — Romanization to Chinese

本文係就外國地名譯寫的過程與要領提出研析。首先，探析地名國際標準化之實質內涵與亞洲各國之漢字化地名；進而剖析外國地名譯寫的方法，即網羅外國地名譯寫工具，俾利查詢並獲知地理實體之相關地名，與綜合分析相關地理背景資料，使審譯後之外國地名譯名能達可「信」、「達」意與優「雅」等要件。

This article aims to research conversion processes for foreign place names(i.e., toponyms) from Romanization to Chinese and principles of conversionimplementation. Firstly, we analyzed standardization of toponym translationin order to recognize the essential intention of international rules. Secondly,we reviewed conversion guidelines of overseas Chinese toponyms in Asia andproposed those for transcription. Thirdly, we explored geographical namedatabases (or gazetteers) to inquire about current information for geographicalfeatures and to acquire related names (or aliases). Finally, we synthesized allof the results from the gazetteers and background information related to thetoponyms for trustworthy, expressive, and readable renditions in Romanizationand Chinese.