Romanization

"Romanised" redirects here. For the racehorse, seeRomanised (horse).

For other uses, seeRomanisation (disambiguation)andLatinisation (disambiguation).

Not to be confused withRomanianization.

Mandarin Chinese,like many languages, can be romanized in a number of ways; above:TraditionalandSimplified Chinesecharacters meaning Chinese, and romanization systemsHanyu Pinyin,Gwoyeu Romatzyh,Wade-GilesandYalefor those characters.

Inlinguistics,romanizationis the conversion of text from a differentwriting systemto theRoman (Latin) script,or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization includetransliteration,for representing written text, andtranscription,for representing the spoken word, and combinations of both. Transcription methods can be subdivided intophonemictranscription,which records thephonemesor units ofsemanticmeaning in speech, and more strictphonetic transcription,which records speech sounds with precision.

Methods

There are many consistent orstandardizedromanization systems. They can be classified by their characteristics. A particular system's characteristics may make it better-suited for various, sometimes contradictory applications, including document retrieval, linguistic analysis, easy readability, faithful representation of pronunciation.

• Source, or donor language – A system may be tailored to romanize text from a particular language, or a series of languages, or for any language in a particular writing system. A language-specific system typically preserves language features like pronunciation, while the general one may be better for cataloguing international texts.
• Target, or receiver language – Most systems are intended for an audience that speaks or reads a particular language. (So-calledinternationalromanization systems for Cyrillic text are based on central-European alphabets like theCzechandCroatian alphabet.)
• Simplicity – Since the basicLatin alphabethas a smaller number of letters than many other writing systems,digraphs,diacritics,or special characters must be used to represent them all in Latin script. This affects the ease of creation, digital storage and transmission, reproduction, and reading of the romanized text.
• Reversibility – Whether or not the original can be restored from the converted text. Some reversible systems allow for an irreversible simplified version.

Transliteration

Main article:Transliteration

If the romanization attempts to transliterate the original script, the guiding principle is a one-to-one mapping of characters in the source language into the target script, with less emphasis on how the result sounds when pronounced according to the reader's language. For example, theNihon-shikiromanization ofJapaneseallows the informed reader to reconstruct the original Japanesekanasyllables with 100% accuracy, but requires additional knowledge for correct pronunciation.

Transcription

Main article:Transcription (linguistics)

Phonemic

See also:Phonemic orthography

Most romanizations are intended to enable the casual reader who is unfamiliar with the original script to pronounce the source language reasonably accurately. Such romanizations follow the principle ofphonemic transcriptionand attempt to render the significant sounds (phonemes) of the original as faithfully as possible in the target language. The popularHepburn Romanizationof Japanese is an example of a transcriptive romanization designed for English speakers.

Phonetic

See also:Phonetic transcription

Aphoneticconversion goes one step further and attempts to depict allphonesin the source language, sacrificing legibility if necessary by using characters or conventions not found in the target script. In practice such a representation almost never tries to representeverypossible allophone—especially those that occur naturally due tocoarticulationeffects—and instead limits itself to the most significant allophonic distinctions. TheInternational Phonetic Alphabetis the most common system of phonetic transcription.

Trade

For most language pairs, building a usable romanization involves trade between the two extremes. Pure transcriptions are generally not possible, as the source language usually contains sounds and distinctions not found in the target language, but which must be shown for the romanized form to be comprehensible. Furthermore, due todiachronicandsynchronicvariance nowritten languagerepresents anyspoken languagewith perfect accuracy and the vocal interpretation of ascriptmay vary by a great degree among languages. In modern times the chain of transcription is usually spoken foreign language, written foreign language, written native language, spoken (read) native language. Reducing the number of those processes, i.e. removing one or both steps of writing, usually leads to more accurate oral articulations. In general, outside a limited audience of scholars, romanizations tend to lean more towards transcription. As an example, consider the Japanese martial art nhu thuật: the Nihon-shiki romanizationzyûzyutumay allow someone who knows Japanese to reconstruct the kana syllablesじゅうじゅつ,but most native English speakers, or rather readers, would find it easier to guess the pronunciation from the Hepburn version,jūjutsu.

Romanization of specific writing systems

See also:Category:Romanization

Arabic

Main articles:Romanization of ArabicandMaltese alphabet

TheArabic alphabetis used to writeArabic,Persian,Urdu,PashtoandSindhias well as numerous other languages in the Muslim world, particularlyAfricanandAsianlanguages without alphabets of their own. Romanization standards include the following:

• Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft(1936): Adopted by the International Convention of Orientalist Scholars in Rome. It is the basis for the very influentialHans Wehr dictionary(ISBN0-87950-003-4).
• BS 4280(1968): Developed by theBritish Standards Institution
• SATTS(1970s): A one-for-one substitution system, a legacy from theMorse codeera
• UNGEGN(1972)
• DIN 31635(1982): Developed by theDeutsches Institut für Normung(German Institute for Standardization)
• ISO 233(1984). Transliteration.
• Qalam(1985): A system that focuses upon preserving the spelling, rather than the pronunciation, and uses mixed case
• ISO 233-2(1993): Simplified transliteration.
• Buckwalter transliteration(1990s): Developed atXeroxbyTim Buckwalter;does not require unusualdiacritics
• ALA-LC(1997)
• Arabic chat alphabet

Persian

Main article:Romanization of Persian

See also:Category:Persian orthography

Consonants

Unicode	Persian letter	IPA	DMG (1969)	ALA-LC (1997)	BGN/PCGN (1958)	EI (1960)	EI (2012)	UN (1967)	UN (2012)	Pronunciation
U+0627	ا	ʔ,∅	ʾ, —	ʼ, —				ʾ		- as in uh-oh
U+0628	ب	b	b							B as in Bob
U+067E	پ	p	p							P as in pet
U+062A	ت	t	t							T as in tall
U+062B	ث	s	s̱	s̱	s̄	t͟h	ṯ	s̄	s	S as in sand
U+062C	ج	dʒ	ǧ	j	j	d͟j	j	j		J as in jam
U+0686	چ	tʃ	č	ch	ch	č		ch	č	Ch as in Charlie
U+062D	ح	h	ḥ	ḥ	ḩ/ḥ	ḥ		ḩ	h	H as in holiday
U+062E	خ	x	ḫ	kh	kh	k͟h	ḵ	kh	x	somewhat resembling German Ch
U+062F	د	d	d							D as in Dave
U+0630	ذ	z	ẕ	ẕ	z̄	d͟h	ḏ	z̄	z	Z as in zero
U+0631	ر	r	r							R as in rabbit
U+0632	ز	z	z							Z as in zero
U+0698	ژ	ʒ	ž	zh	zh	z͟h	ž	zh	ž	S as in television or G as in genre
U+0633	س	s	s							S as in Sam
U+0634	ش	ʃ	š	sh	sh	s͟h	š	sh	š	Sh as in sheep
U+0635	ص	s	ṣ	ṣ	ş/ṣ	ṣ		ş	s	S as in Sam
U+0636	ض	z	ż	z̤	ẕ	ḍ	ż	ẕ	z	Z as in zero
U+0637	ط	t	ṭ	ṭ	ţ/ṭ	ṭ		ţ	t	t as in tank
U+0638	ظ	z	ẓ	ẓ	z̧/ẓ	ẓ	ẓ	z̧	z	Z as in zero
U+0639	ع	ʕ	ʿ	ʻ	ʼ	ʻ	ʻ	ʿ	ʿ	_____
U+063A	غ	ɢ~ɣ	ġ	gh	gh	g͟h	ḡ	gh	q	somewhat resembling French R
U+0641	ف	f	f							F as in Fred
U+0642	ق	ɢ~ɣ	q			ḳ		q		somewhat resembling French R
U+06A9	ک	k	k							C as in card
U+06AF	گ	ɡ	g							G as in go
U+0644	ل	l	l							L as in lamp
U+0645	م	m	m							M as in Michael
U+0646	ن	n	n							N as in name
U+0648	و	v~w	v				v, w	v		V as in vision
U+0647	ه	h	h	h	h	h		h	h	H as in hot
U+0629	ة	∅,t	—	h	—	t	h	—	—
U+06CC	ی	j	y							Y as in Yale
U+0621	ء	ʔ,∅	ʾ	ʼ				ʾ
U+0623	أ	ʔ,∅	ʾ	ʼ				ʾ
U+0624	ؤ	ʔ,∅	ʾ	ʼ				ʾ
U+0626	ئ	ʔ,∅	ʾ	ʼ				ʾ

Vowels

Unicode	Final	Medial	Initial	Isolated	IPA	DMG (1969)	ALA-LC (1997)	BGN/PCGN (1958)	EI (2012)	UN (1967)	UN (2012)	Pronunciation
U+064E	ـَ	ـَ	اَ	اَ	æ	a	a	a	a	a	a	A as in cat
U+064F	ـُ	ـُ	اُ	اُ	o	o	o	o	u	o	o	O as in go
U+0648 U+064F	ـوَ	ـوَ	—	—	o	o	o	o	u	o	o	O as in go
U+0650	ـِ	ـِ	اِ	اِ	e	e	i	e	e	e	e	E as in ten
U+064E U+0627	ـَا	ـَا	آ	آ	ɑː~ɒː	ā	ā	ā	ā	ā	ā	O as in hot
U+0622	ـآ	ـآ	آ	آ	ɑː~ɒː	ā, ʾā	ā, ʼā	ā	ā	ā	ā	O as in hot
U+064E U+06CC	ـَی	—	—	—	ɑː~ɒː	ā	á	á	ā	á	ā	O as in hot
U+06CC U+0670	ـیٰ	—	—	—	ɑː~ɒː	ā	á	á	ā	ā	ā	O as in hot
U+064F U+0648	ـُو	ـُو	اُو	اُو	uː,oː	ū	ū	ū	u, ō	ū	u	U as in actual
U+0650 U+06CC	ـِی	ـِیـ	اِیـ	اِی	iː,eː	ī	ī	ī	i, ē	ī	i	Y as in happy
U+064E U+0648	ـَو	ـَو	اَو	اَو	ow~aw	au	aw	ow	ow, aw	ow	ow	O as in go
U+064E U+06CC	ـَی	ـَیـ	اَیـ	اَی	ej~aj	ai	ay	ey	ey, ay	ey	ey	Ay as in play
U+064E U+06CC	ـیِ	—	—	—	–e,–je	–e, –ye	–i, –yi	–e, –ye	–e, –ye	–e, –ye	–e, –ye	Ye as in yes
U+06C0	ـهٔ	—	—	—	–je	–ye	–ʼi	–ye	–ye	–ye	–ye	Ye as in yes

Notes:

Armenian

Main article:Romanization of Armenian

Georgian

Main article:Romanization of Georgian

Georgian letter	IPA	National system (2002)	BGN/PCGN (1981—2009)	ISO 9984 (1996)	ALA-LC (1997)	Unofficial system	Kartvelo translit	NGR2
ა	/ɑ/	a	a	a	a	a	a	a
ბ	/b/	b	b	b	b	b	b	b
გ	/ɡ/	g	g	g	g	g	g	g
დ	/d/	d	d	d	d	d	d	d
ე	/ɛ/	e	e	e	e	e	e	e
ვ	/v/	v	v	v	v	v	v	v
ზ	/z/	z	z	z	z	z	z	z
ჱ	/eɪ/		ey	ē	ē	é	ej	ẽ
თ	/tʰ/	t	tʼ	t̕	tʻ	Tor t	t	t / t̊
ი	/i/	i	i	i	i	i	i	i
კ	/kʼ/	kʼ	k	k	k	k	ǩ	k̉
ლ	/l/	l	l	l	l	l	l	l
მ	/m/	m	m	m	m	m	m	m
ნ	/n/	n	n	n	n	n	n	n
ჲ	/i/,/j/		j	y	y		j	ĩ
ო	/ɔ/	o	o	o	o	o	o	o
პ	/pʼ/	pʼ	p	p	p	p	p̌	p̉
ჟ	/ʒ/	zh	zh	ž	ž	J,zh or j	ž	g̃
რ	/r/	r	r	r	r	r	r	r
ს	/s/	s	s	s	s	s	s	s
ტ	/tʼ/	tʼ	t	t	t	t	t̆	t̉
ჳ	/w/			w	w		ŭ	f̃
უ	/u/	u	u	u	u	u	u	u
ფ	/pʰ/	p	pʼ	p̕	pʻ	p or f	p	p / p̊
ქ	/kʰ/	k	kʼ	k̕	kʻ	q or k	q or k	k / k̊
ღ	/ʁ/	gh	gh	ḡ	ġ	g, gh or R	g, gh or R	q̃
ყ	/qʼ/	qʼ	q	q	q	y	q	q
შ	/ʃ/	sh	sh	š	š	sh or S	š	x
ჩ	/t͡ʃ(ʰ)/	ch	chʼ	č̕	čʻ	ch or C	č	c̃
ც	/t͡s(ʰ)/	ts	tsʼ	c̕	cʻ	c or ts	c	c
ძ	/d͡z/	dz	dz	j	ż	dz or Z	ʒ	d̃
წ	/t͡sʼ/	tsʼ	ts	c	c	w, c or ts	ʃ	c̉
ჭ	/t͡ʃʼ/	chʼ	ch	č	č	W,ch or tch	ʃ̌	j̉
ხ	/χ/	kh	kh	x	x	x or kh (rarely)	x	k̃
ჴ	/q/,/qʰ/		qʼ	ẖ	x̣		q̌	q̊
ჯ	/d͡ʒ/	j	j	ǰ	j	j	-	j
ჰ	/h/	h	h	h	h	h	h	h
ჵ	/oː/			ō	ō		ȯ	h̃

Notes:

Greek

Main article:Romanization of Greek

There are romanization systems for bothModernandAncient Greek.

• ALA-LC
• Beta Code
• Greeklish
• ISO 843(1997)

Hebrew

Main article:Romanization of Hebrew

TheHebrew alphabetis romanized using several standards:

• ANSIZ39.25 (1975)
• UNGEGN(1977)
• ISO 259(1984): Transliteration.
• ISO 259-2(1994): Simplified transliteration.
• ISO/DIS 259-3: Phonemic transcription.
• ALA-LC

Indic (Brahmic) scripts

See also:Devanagari transliteration,Romanization of Bengali,andRomanisation of Malayalam

TheBrahmic familyofabugidasis used for languages of the Indian subcontinent and south-east Asia. There is a long tradition in the west to studySanskritand other Indic texts in Latin transliteration. Various transliteration conventions have been used for Indic scripts since the time of Sir William Jones.

• ISO 15919(2001): A standardtransliterationconvention was codified in the ISO 15919 standard. It usesdiacriticsto map the much larger set of Brahmicconsonantsandvowelsto the Latin script. The Devanagari-specific portion is very similar to the academic standard,IAST:"International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration", and to the United States Library of Congress standard,ALA-LC,although there are a few differences
• TheNational Library at Kolkata romanization,intended for the romanization of allIndic scripts,is an extension ofIAST
• Harvard-Kyoto:Uses upper and lower case and doubling of letters, to avoid the use of diacritics, and to restrict the range to 7-bit ASCII.
• ITRANS:a transliteration scheme into 7-bit ASCII created byAvinash Chopdethat used to be prevalent onUsenet.
• ISCII(1988)

Devanagari–nastaʿlīq (Hindustani)

Hindustaniis anIndo-Aryan languagewith extremedigraphiaanddiglossiaresulting from theHindi–Urdu controversystarting in the 1800s. Technically, Hindustani itself is recognized by neither the language community nor any governments. Twostandardizedregisters,Standard HindiandStandard Urdu,are recognized asofficial languagesin India and Pakistan. However, in practice the situation is,

• In Pakistan: Standard (Saaf or Khaalis) Urdu is the "high" variety, whereas Hindustani is the "low" variety used by the masses (called Urdu, written innastaʿlīq script).
• In India, both Standard (Shuddh) Hindi and Standard (Saaf or Khaalis) Urdu are the "H" varieties (written indevanagariand nastaʿlīq respectively), whereas Hindustani is the "L" variety used by the masses and written in either devanagari or nastaʿlīq (and called 'Hindi' or 'Urdu' respectively).

The digraphia renders any work in either script largely inaccessible to users of the other script, though otherwise Hindustani is a perfectly mutually intelligible language, essentially meaning that any kind of text-basedopen sourcecollaboration is impossible among devanagari and nastaʿlīq readers.

Initiated in 2011, the Hamari Boli Initiativeis a full-scale open-sourcelanguage planninginitiative aimed at Hindustani script, style, status & lexical reform and modernization. One of primary stated objectives of Hamari Boli is to relieve Hindustani of the crippling devanagari–nastaʿlīq digraphia by way of romanization.

Chinese

Main article:Romanization of Chinese

Romanization of theSinitic languages,particularlyMandarin,has proved a very difficult problem, although the issue is further complicated by political considerations. Because of this, many romanization tables contain Chinese characters plus one or more romanizations orZhuyin.

Mandarin

• ALA-LC:Used to be similar to Wade–Giles,but converted toHanyu Pinyinin 2000
• EFEO.Developed byÉcole française d'Extrême-Orientin the 19th century, used mainly in France.
• Latinxua Sin Wenz(1926): Omitted tone sounds. Used mainly in theSoviet UnionandXinjiangin the 1930s. Predecessor ofHanyu Pinyin.
• Lessing-Othmer:Used mainly in Germany.
• Postal romanization(1906): Early standard for international addresses
• Wade–Giles(1892): Transliteration. Very popular from the 19th century until recently and continues to be used by some Western academics.
• Yale(1942): Created by the U.S. for battlefield communication and used in the influential Yale textbooks.
• Legge romanization:Created byJames Legge,a Scottish missionary.

Mainland China

• Hanyu Pinyin(1958): Inmainland China,Hanyu Pinyin has been used officially to romanizeMandarinfor decades, primarily as a linguistic tool for teaching the standardized language. The system is also used in other Chinese-speaking areas such asSingaporeand parts ofTaiwan,and has been adopted by much of the international community as a standard for writing Chinese words and names in the Latin script. The value of Hanyu Pinyin in education in China lies in the fact that China, like any other populated area with comparable area and population, has numerous distinctdialects,though there is just one common written language and one common standardized spoken form. (These comments apply to romanization in general)
• ISO 7098(1991): Based on Hanyu Pinyin.

Taiwan

Main article:Chinese language romanization in Taiwan

1. Gwoyeu Romatzyh(GR, 1928–1986, in Taiwan 1945–1986; Taiwan used Japanese Romaji before 1945),
2. Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II(MPS II, 1986–2002),
3. Tongyong Pinyin(2002–2008),and
4. Hanyu Pinyin(since January 1, 2009).

Singapore

Main article:Chinese language romanisation in Singapore

Cantonese

• Barnett–Chao
• Guangdong(1960)
• Hong Kong Government
• Jyutping
• Macau Government
• Meyer–Wempe
• Sidney Lau
• Yale(1942)
• Cantonese Pinyin

Wu

See also:Romanization of Wu Chinese

Min Nan or Hokkien

See also:Comparison of Hokkien writing systems

• Pe̍h-ōe-jī(POJ), once thede factoofficial script of thePresbyterian Church in Taiwan(since the late 19th century). Technically this represented a largely phonemic transcription system, asMin Nanwas not commonly written in Chinese.
• Tâi-uân Lô-má-jī Phing-im Hong-àn

Teochew

• Guangdong(1960), for the distinctTeochewvariety.

Min Dong

• Foochow Romanized

Min Bei

• Kienning Colloquial Romanized

Japanese

Main article:Romanization of Japanese

Romanization (or, more generally,Roman letters) is called "rōmaji"inJapanese.The most common systems are:

• Hepburn(1867): phonetic transcription to Anglo-American practices, used in geographical names
• Nihon-shiki(1885): transliteration. Also adopted as (ISO 3602 Strict) in 1989.
• Kunrei-shiki(1937): phonemic transcription. Also adopted as (ISO 3602).
• JSL(1987): phonemic transcription. Named after the bookJapanese: The Spoken Languageby Eleanor Jorden.
• ALA-LC:Similar to Modified Hepburn
• Wāpuro:( "word processor romanization" ) transliteration. Not strictly a system, but a collection of common practices that enables input of Japanese text.

Korean

Main article:Romanization of Korean

While romanization has taken various and at times seemingly unstructured forms, some sets of rules do exist:

• McCune–Reischauer(MR; 1937?), the first transcription to gain some acceptance. A slightly changed version of MR was the official system forKoreaninSouth Koreafrom 1984 to 2000, and yet a different modification is still the official system inNorth Korea.Usesbreves,apostrophesanddiereses,the latter two indicating orthographic syllable boundaries in cases that would otherwise be ambiguous.
  What is called MR may in many cases be any of a number of systems that differ from each other and from the original MR mostly in whether word endings are separated from the stem by a space, a hyphen or – according to McCune's and Reischauer's system – not at all; and if a hyphen or space is used, whether sound change is reflected in a stem's last and an ending's first consonant letter (e.g.pur-ivs.pul-i). Although mostly irrelevant when transcribing uninflected words, these aberrations are so widespread that any mention of "McCune-Reischauer romanization" may not necessarily refer to the original system as published in the 1930s.
  • There is, for example, theALA-LC/ U.S. Library of Congress system, based on MR but with some deviations. Word division is addressed in detail, with a generous use of spaces to separate word endings from stems that is not seen in MR. Syllables of given names are always separated with a hyphen, which is expressly never done by MR. Sound changes are ignored more often than in MR. Distinguishes between‘and’.

Several problems with MR led to the development of the newer systems:

• Yale(1942): This system has become the established standard romanization for Korean amonglinguists.Vowel length in old or dialectal pronunciation is indicated by amacron.In cases that would otherwise be ambiguous, orthographic syllable boundaries are indicated with a period. This system also indicates consonants that have disappeared from a word'sSouth Korean orthographyand standard pronunciation.
• Revised Romanization of Korean(RR; 2000): Includes rules both for transcription and for transliteration. South Korea now officially uses this system that was approved in 2000. Road signs and textbooks were required to follow these rules as soon as possible, at a cost estimated by the government to be at least US$20 million. All road signs, names of railway and subway stations on line maps and signs etc. have been changed. The change has been either ignored orgrandfatheredin some cases, notably the romanization of names and existing companies. RR is generally similar to MR, but uses no diacritics or apostrophes, and uses distinct letters for ㅌ/ㄷ (t/d), ㅋ/ㄱ (k/g), ㅊ/ㅈ (ch/j) and ㅍ/ㅂ (p/b). In cases of ambiguity, orthographic syllable boundaries were intended to be indicated with ahyphen,but this is inconsistently applied in practice.
• ISO/TR 11941(1996): This actually is two different standards under one name: one for North Korea (DPRK) and the other for South Korea (ROK). The initial submission to the ISO was based heavily on Yale and was a joint effort between both states, but they could not agree on the final draft.
• Lukoffromanization, developed 1945–47 for hisSpoken Koreancoursebooks

Thai

Main article:Romanization of Thai

Thai,spoken inThailandand some areas of Laos, Burma and China, is written withits own script,probably descended from mixture of Tai–Laotian andOld Khmer,in theBrahmic family.

• Royal Thai General System of Transcription
• ISO 119401998 Transliteration
• ISO 11940-22007 Transcription
• ALA-LC

Nuosu

TheNuosu language,spoken in southern China, is written with its own script, theYi script.The only existing romanisation system isYYPY(Yi Yu Pin Yin), which represents tone with letters attached to the end of syllables, as Nuosu forbids codas. It does not use diacritics, and as such due to the large phonemic inventory of Nuosu, it requires frequent use of digraphs, including for monophthong vowels.

Tibetan

TheTibetan scripthas two official romanization systems:Tibetan Pinyin(forLhasa Tibetan) andRoman Dzongkha(forDzongkha).

Cyrillic

In English language library catalogues, bibliographies, and most academic publications, theLibrary of Congress transliteration methodis used worldwide.

In linguistics,scientific transliterationis used for bothCyrillicandGlagolitic alphabets.This applies toOld Church Slavonic,as well as modernSlavic languagesthat use these alphabets.

Belarusian

Main article:Romanization of Belarusian

See also:Belarusian Latin alphabet

• BGN/PCGN romanization of Belarusian,1979 (United States Board on Geographic NamesandPermanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use)
• Scientific transliteration,or theInternational Scholarly Systemforlinguistics
• ALA-LC romanization,1997 (American Library Association and Library of Congress):
• ISO 9:1995
• Instruction on transliteration of Belarusian geographical names with letters of Latin script,2000

Bulgarian

Main article:Romanization of Bulgarian

A system based onscientific transliterationandISO/R 9:1968was considered official in Bulgaria since the 1970s. Since the late 1990s, Bulgarian authorities have switched to the so-calledStreamlined Systemavoiding the use of diacritics and optimized for compatibility with English. This system became mandatory for public use with a law passed in 2009.Where the old system uses <č,š,ž,št,c,j,ă>, the new system uses <ch,sh,zh,sht,ts,y,a>.

The new Bulgarian system was endorsed for official use also by UN in 2012,and byBGNandPCGNin 2013.

Kyrgyz

Main article:Romanization of Kyrgyz

Macedonian

Main article:Romanization of Macedonian

Russian

Main article:Romanization of Russian

There is no single universally accepted system of writingRussianusing the Latin script—in fact there are a huge number of such systems: some are adjusted for a particular target language (e.g. German or French), some are designed as a librarian's transliteration, some are prescribed for Russian travellers' passports; the transcription of some names is purely traditional. All this has resulted in great reduplication of names. E.g. the name of the Russian composerTchaikovskymay also be written asTchaykovsky,Tchajkovskij,Tchaikowski,Tschaikowski,Czajkowski,Čajkovskij,Čajkovski,Chajkovskij,Çaykovski,Chaykovsky,Chaykovskiy,Chaikovski,Tshaikovski,Tšaikovski,Tsjajkovskijetc. Systems include:

• BGN/PCGN(1947): Transliteration system (United States Board on Geographic Names & Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use).
• GOST 16876-71(1971): A now defunct Soviet transliteration standard. Replaced by GOST 7.79, which is anISO 9equivalent.
• United Nationsromanization system for geographical names (1987): Based onGOST 16876-71.
• ISO 9(1995): Transliteration. From theInternational Organization for Standardization.
• ALA-LC(1997)
• "Volapuk" encoding (1990s): Slang term (it is not reallyVolapük) for a writing method that is not truly a transliteration, but used for similar goals (see article).
• Conventional English transliteration is based to BGN/PCGN, but does not follow a particular standard. Described in detail atRomanization of Russian.
• Streamlined Systemfor the romanization of Russian.
• Comparative transliteration of Russianin different languages (Western European, Arabic, Georgian, Braille, Morse)

Syriac

Main article:Syriac alphabet § Latin alphabet and romanization

The Latin script for Syriac was developed in the 1930s, following the state policy for minority languages of theSoviet Union,with some material published.

Ukrainian

Main article:Romanization of Ukrainian

See also:Ukrainian Latin alphabet

The 2010 Ukrainian National system has been adopted by the UNGEGN in 2012 and by the BGN/PCGN in 2020. It is also very close to the modified (simplified) ALA-LC system, which has remained unchanged since 1941.

• ALA-LC
• ISO 9
• Ukrainian National transliteration
• Ukrainian National and BGN/PCGN systems, at the UN Working Group on Romanization Systems
• Thomas T. Pedersen's comparison of five systems

Overview and summary

The chart below shows the most common phonemic transcription romanization used for several different alphabets. While it is sufficient for many casual users, there are multiple alternatives used for each alphabet, and many exceptions. For details, consult each of the language sections above. (Hangul characters are broken down intojamocomponents.)

Romanized	IPA	Greek	Cyrillic	Amazigh	Hebrew	Arabic	Persian	Katakana	Hangul	Bopomofo
A	a	A	А	ⴰ	ַ, ֲ, ָ	َ, ا	ا, آ	ア	ㅏ	ㄚ
AE	ai̯/ɛ	ΑΙ							ㅐ
AI	ai				י ַ					ㄞ
B	b	ΜΠ, Β	Б	ⴱ	בּ	ﺏ ﺑ ﺒ ﺐ	ﺏ ﺑ		ㅂ	ㄅ
C	k/s	Ξ								ㄘ
CH	ʧ	TΣ̈	Ч		צ׳		چ		ㅊ	ㄔ
CHI	ʨi							チ
D	d	ΝΤ, Δ	Д	ⴷ, ⴹ	ד	ﺩ — ﺪ, ﺽ ﺿ ﻀ ﺾ	د		ㄷ	ㄉ
DH	ð	Δ			דֿ	ﺫ — ﺬ
DZ	ʣ	ΤΖ	Ѕ
E	e/ɛ	Ε, ΑΙ	Э	ⴻ	,ֱ, י ֵֶ, ֵ, י ֶ			エ	ㅔ	ㄟ
EO	ʌ								ㅓ
EU	ɯ								ㅡ
F	f	Φ	Ф	ⴼ	פ (or its final form ף )	ﻑ ﻓ ﻔ ﻒ	ﻑ			ㄈ
FU	ɸɯ							フ
G	ɡ	ΓΓ, ΓΚ, Γ	Г	ⴳ, ⴳⵯ	ג		گ		ㄱ	ㄍ
GH	ɣ	Γ	Ғ	ⵖ	גֿ, עֿ	ﻍ ﻏ ﻐ ﻎ	ق غ
H	h	Η	Һ	ⵀ, ⵃ	ח, ה	ﻩ ﻫ ﻬ ﻪ, ﺡ ﺣ ﺤ ﺢ	ه ح ﻫ		ㅎ	ㄏ
HA	ha							ハ
HE	he							ヘ
HI	hi							ヒ
HO	ho							ホ
I	i/ɪ	Η, Ι, Υ, ΕΙ, ΟΙ	И, І	ⵉ	ִ, י ִ	دِ		イ	ㅣ	ㄧ
IY	ij					دِي
J	ʤ	TZ̈	ДЖ, Џ	ⵊ	ג׳	ﺝ ﺟ ﺠ ﺞ	ج		ㅈ	ㄐ
JJ	ʦ͈/ʨ͈								ㅉ
K	k	Κ	К	ⴽ, ⴽⵯ	כּ	ﻙ ﻛ ﻜ ﻚ	ک		ㅋ	ㄎ
KA	ka							カ
KE	ke							ケ
KH	x	X	Х	ⵅ	כ, חֿ (or its final form ך )	ﺥ ﺧ ﺨ ﺦ	خ
KI	ki							キ
KK	k͈								ㄲ
KO	ko							コ
KU	kɯ							ク
L	l	Λ	Л	ⵍ	ל	ﻝ ﻟ ﻠ ﻞ	ل		ㄹ	ㄌ
M	m	Μ	М	ⵎ	מ (or its final form ם )	ﻡ ﻣ ﻤ ﻢ	م		ㅁ	ㄇ
MA	ma							マ
ME	me							メ
MI	mi							ミ
MO	mo							モ
MU	mɯ							ム
N	n	Ν	Н	ⵏ	נ (or its final form ן )	ﻥ ﻧ ﻨ ﻦ	ن	ン	ㄴ	ㄋ
NA	na							ナ
NE	ne							ネ
NG	ŋ								ㅇ
NI	ɲi							ニ
NO	no							ノ
NU	nɯ							ヌ
O	o	Ο, Ω	О		,ֳ, וֹֹ		ُا	オ	ㅗ
OE	ø								ㅚ
P	p	Π	П		פּ		پ		ㅍ	ㄆ
PP	p͈								ㅃ
PS	ps	Ψ
Q	q	Θ		ⵇ	ק	ﻕ ﻗ ﻘ ﻖ	غ ق			ㄑ
R	r	Ρ	Р	ⵔ, ⵕ	ר	ﺭ — ﺮ	ر		ㄹ	ㄖ
RA	ɾa							ラ
RE	ɾe							レ
RI	ɾi							リ
RO	ɾo							ロ
RU	ɾɯ							ル
S	s	Σ	С	ⵙ, ⵚ	ס, שׂ	ﺱ ﺳ ﺴ ﺲ, ﺹ ﺻ ﺼ ﺺ	س ث ص		ㅅ	ㄙ
SA	sa							サ
SE	se							セ
SH	ʃ	Σ̈	Ш	ⵛ	שׁ	ﺵ ﺷ ﺸ ﺶ	ش			ㄕ
SHCH	ʃʧ		Щ
SHI	ɕi							シ
SO	so							ソ
SS	s͈								ㅆ
SU	sɯ							ス
T	t	Τ	Т	ⵜ, ⵟ	ט, תּ, ת	ﺕ ﺗ ﺘ ﺖ, ﻁ ﻃ ﻄ ﻂ	ت ط		ㅌ	ㄊ
TA	ta							タ
TE	te							テ
TH	θ	Θ			תֿ	ﺙ ﺛ ﺜ ﺚ
TO	to							ト
TS	ʦ	ΤΣ	Ц		צ (or its final form ץ )
TSU	ʦɯ							ツ
TT	t͈								ㄸ
U	u	ΟΥ, Υ	У	ⵓ	,וֻּ	دُ		ウ	ㅜ	ㄩ
UI	ɰi								ㅢ
UW	uw					دُو
V	v	B	В		ב		و
W	w	Ω		ⵡ	ו, וו	ﻭ — ﻮ
WA	wa							ワ	ㅘ
WAE	wɛ								ㅙ
WE	we							ヱ	ㅞ
WI	y/ɥi							ヰ	ㅟ
WO	wo							ヲ	ㅝ
X	x/ks	Ξ, Χ								ㄒ
Y	j	Υ, Ι, ΓΙ	Й, Ы, Ј	ⵢ	י	ﻱ ﻳ ﻴ ﻲ	ی
YA	ja		Я					ヤ	ㅑ
YAE	jɛ								ㅒ
YE	je		Е, Є						ㅖ
YEO	jʌ								ㅕ
YI	ji		Ї
YO	jo		Ё					ヨ	ㅛ
YU	ju		Ю					ユ	ㅠ
Z	z	Ζ	З	ⵣ, ⵥ	ז	ﺯ — ﺰ, ﻅ ﻇ ﻈ ﻆ	ز ظ ذ ض			ㄗ
ZH	ʐ/ʒ	Ζ̈	Ж		ז׳		ژ			ㄓ

See also

• Anglicisation
• Cyrillization,expression of a language in Cyrillic letters
• Francization
• Gairaigo
• Transcription into Chinese,though standards vary by polity.
• Sinicization,specificallyadoption of Chinese literary culture
• Latinisation of names
• Semitic romanization
• Spread of the Latin script

External links

About romanization

• IPA for Urdu and Roman Urdu for Mobile and Internet Users (Download)Archived2008-12-23 at theWayback Machine
• Microsoft Transliteration Utility– A tool for creating, debugging and using transliteration modules from any script to any other script.
• Randall Barry (ed.)ALA-LC Romanization TablesU.S. Library of Congress, 1997,ISBN0-8444-0940-5.(One of the few printed books with lists of romanizations)
• U.S. Library of Congress Romanization Tablesin PDF format
• UNGEGN Working Group on Romanization Systems
• Unicode Transliteration GuidelinesArchived2009-03-28 at theWayback Machine

Romanization online

• Chinese Phonetic Conversion Tool– Converts between Pinyin and other formats
• Cyrillic Transliteration and Transcription ONLINE (Cyrillic -> Latin)
• eiktubArchived2019-10-25 at theWayback Machine– An Arabic Transliteration Pad
• Lingua::Translit–Perlmodule covering a variety of writing systems e.g. Cyrillic or Greek. Provides a lot of standards as well as common transliteration schemes.
• Arabeasy– Arabic Transliteration (free chrome extension exists, also works for Persian, Urdu)
• RussianeasyArchived2016-03-08 at theWayback Machine– Russian Transliteration (free chrome extension exists)

For Persian Romanization

• [https://laatingar.com/dashboard}

For Cantonese Romanization

• [1]