Abstract: In this paper, the author discussed two different terms in linguistics: transliteration and transcription. Transliteration is the operation which consists of representing the characters of an entirely alphabetical system of writing by the characters of the conversion alphabet. Transcription is the operation which consists of representing the characters of a language, whatever the original system of writing, by the phonetic system of letters or signs of the conversion language. Transliteration is reversible, while transcription is not strictly reversible. A transcription system is of necessity based on the orthographical conventions of a conversion language and its alphabet. Transcription may be used for the conversion of all writing systems. It is the only method that can be used for systems that are not entirely alphabetical and for all ideophonographic writing systems (Chinese, Japanese, etc.)

Key words: transliteration, transcription, reverse