diff --git a/app/app.py b/app/app.py
index f1b7b70..d673ff2 100644
--- a/app/app.py
+++ b/app/app.py
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ from flask_swagger import swagger
 from flask_swagger_ui import get_swaggerui_blueprint
 from pkg_resources import resource_filename
 from .api_keys import Database
-from app.language import detect_languages
+from app.language import detect_languages, transliterate
 
 api_keys_db = None
 
@@ -285,9 +285,9 @@ def create_app(args):
 
         try:
           if batch:
-            return jsonify({"translatedText": [translator.translate(text) for text in q] })
+            return jsonify({"translatedText": [translator.translate(transliterate(text, target_lang=source_lang)) for text in q] })
           else:
-            return jsonify({"translatedText": translator.translate(q) })
+            return jsonify({"translatedText": translator.translate(transliterate(q, target_lang=source_lang)) })
         except Exception as e:
             abort(500, description="Cannot translate text: %s" % str(e))
 
diff --git a/app/language.py b/app/language.py
index 17d1822..e6f3613 100644
--- a/app/language.py
+++ b/app/language.py
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
+import string
+
 from argostranslate import translate
 from polyglot.detect.base import Detector
+from polyglot.transliteration.base import Transliterator
 
 
 languages = translate.load_installed_languages()
@@ -68,3 +71,51 @@ def detect_languages(text):
                 }
                 for l in candidate_langs
             ]
+
+
+def __transliterate_line(transliterator, line_text):
+    new_text = []
+
+    # transliteration is done word by word
+    for orig_word in line_text.split(" "):
+        # remove any punctuation on the right side
+        r_word = orig_word.rstrip(string.punctuation)
+        r_diff = set(char for char in orig_word) - set(char for char in r_word)
+        # and on the left side
+        l_word = orig_word.lstrip(string.punctuation)
+        l_diff = set(char for char in orig_word) - set(char for char in l_word)
+
+        # the actual transliteration of the word
+        t_word = transliterator.transliterate(orig_word.strip(string.punctuation))
+
+        # if transliteration fails, default back to the original word
+        if not t_word:
+            t_word = orig_word
+        else:
+            # add back any stripped punctuation
+            if r_diff:
+                t_word = t_word + ''.join(r_diff)
+            if l_diff:
+                t_word = ''.join(l_diff) + t_word
+
+        new_text.append(t_word)
+
+    # rebuild the text
+    return " ".join(new_text)
+
+
+def transliterate(text, target_lang="en"):
+    # initialize the transliterator from polyglot
+    transliterator = Transliterator(target_lang=target_lang)
+
+    # check for multiline string
+    if "\n" in text:
+        lines = []
+        # process each line separate
+        for line in text.split("\n"):
+            lines.append(__transliterate_line(transliterator, line))
+
+        # rejoin multiline string
+        return "\n".join(lines)
+    else:
+        return __transliterate_line(transliterator, text)