Proper Name Transcription/Transliteration with ICU Transforms
We describe our experience with a deep localization of Google Maps, where millions of geographic names from diverse origins had to be represented in several target languages, including Russian, Mandarin, and Japanese. We tackle the problem of transliterating from several source languages into several target languages by pivoting through an explicit intermediate phonetic representation. Each transliteration scheme is implemented as a sequence of ICU transforms, reusing a few existing transforms from ICU and CLDR, but consisting mostly of transforms written specifically for this problem. We discuss the steps that go into building transliteration rules, describe existing official and de facto standards and guidelines, and give recommendations for developing and testing custom ICU transforms.
This was a talk rather than a published paper — slides and a recording of the presentation, no separate written paper. Presented at IUC 34 in Santa Clara.