Volapuk encoding

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Volapuk encoding (Russian: кодировка "волапюк", kodirovka "volapyuk") is a slang term for rendering the letters of the Cyrillic alphabet with Latin ones. Unlike Translit (there characters are replaced to sound the same), in volapuk characters can be replaced to look or sound the same.

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[edit] Etymology

The name Volapuk encoding comes from the Volapük constructed language, for two reasons. Cyrillic text written in this way looks strange and often funny, just as a Volapük-language text may appear. At the same time, the word "Volapük" ("Волапюк/Воляпюк" Volapyuk/Volyapyuk in Russian) itself sounds funny to Russian ears, so the name stuck.

[edit] History

Volapuk and Translit have been in use since the early days of the Internet to write e-mail messages and other texts in Russian where the support of Cyrillic fonts was limited: either the sender did not have a keyboard with Cyrillic letters or the receiver did not necessarily have Cyrillic screen fonts. In the early days, the situation was aggravated by a number of mutually incompatible computer encodings for the Cyrillic alphabet, so that the sender and receiver were not guaranteed to have the same one. Also, the 7-bit character encoding of the early days was an additional hindrance.

Some Russian e-mail providers even included Volapuk encoding in the list of available options for the e-mails routed abroad, e.g.,

"MIME/BASE64, MIME/Quoted-Printable, volapuk, uuencode"[1]

By the late 90s, the encoding problem had been almost completely resolved, due to the constantly increasing number of Internet users in Russia and increasing support from software manufacturers and Internet service providers.[1]

[edit] Rules

Volapuk often replaces Cyrillic letters with Latin ones in order to look the same as typed or handwritten Cyrillic letters.

1. Replace "the same" letters: a, e, K, M, T, o, y. Capitalize when necessary for closer resemblance (к: К better than k, м: M better than m (which looks exactly like 't' in handwritten Cyrillic), т: T better than t).

2. Replace similar-looking letters: в - B, г - 2 (handwritten resemblance) or r, з - 3, л - J| or /\ (the last is again handwritten resemblance), н - Н, п - n (handwritten resemblance), р - p, с - c, х - x, ч - 4. This may vary.

3. Replace all other non-obvious hard-to-represent characters; there are many options for each letter. (For example, letter 'щ' can be encoded in more than 15 different ways). Examples: ж - *, я - 91, щ - LLI_, э - -) and so on. The choice for each letter depends on the preferences of the individual user.

As some numeric digits are used to represent Cyrillic letters, the result may resemble leetspeak.

Encoding depends on the language as well. For example, Ukrainian users [2] have their own traditions, distinct from the Russian ones.

[edit] Example

  • COBETCKIJ COIO3 ("advanced" volapuk)
  • СОВЕТСКИЙ СОЮЗ (Cyrillic)
  • SOVETSKIY SOYUZ (transliteration)
  • Soviet Union (English)

[edit] Trivia

Volapuk encoding makes an appearance as a plot device (coded messages via cell phones) in William Gibson's 2007 novel Spook Country. In Chapter 3, Milgrim says: "When the Russians got themselves computers, the keyboards and screen displays were Roman, not Cyrillic. They faked up something that looked like Cyrillic, out of our characters. They called it Volapuk. I guess you could say it was a joke." (p. 16).

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b A note of cancellation of automatic volapuk encoding (1997) (Russian)
  2. ^ Instructions at the Ukrainian chat server Nyshporka (Russian)
  • Frolov, A.V. and Frolov, G.V. Electronic Mail. Your Internet Companion (А.В. Фролов, Г.В. Фролов, "Электронная почта. Ваш спутник в Интернете") Russkaya Redaktsiya Publishers (Русская Редакция) (2000) ISBN 5-7502-0156-2, Chapter 6 online (Russian)
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