Romanization systems
Collection of romanization systems and tables of correspondence approved by Permanent Committee on Geographical Names (PCGN) and the US Board on Geographic Names. Please note that the application of these systems should be in accordance with PCGN policy for the respective areas.
Documents
Details
Guidance on BGN/PCGN romanization systems jointly agreed by the US Board on Geographic Names and PCGN for the romanization of non Roman script geographical names.
These are the romanization systems and tables of correspondences currently approved by PCGN and BGN. The date on each system is that of its joint adoption by BGN and PCGN. The systems and tables are regularly reviewed and all those listed here are in current use.
Please contact PCGN for more information or in case of uncertainty.
Related information
The Unicode Consortium For more information on displaying and using letter-diacritic combinations and non-Roman characters.
The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names established a Working Group on Romanization Systems to consider and reach agreement on romanization systems proposed by national official bodies for the treatment of names in non Roman scripts.
Updates to this page
Published 1 July 2014Last updated 14 March 2024 + show all updates
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Added 'Uyghur romanization'.
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Updated Adyghe, Avar and Kabardian romanization, and Chechen: table of correspondences.
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Updated Macedonian Cyrillic romanization.
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Updated: Introduction to Romanization Systems and Roman script spelling conventions.
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Attachment 'Dzongkha romanization' updated.
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Updated 'Moldovan: table of correspondences'.
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Updated 'Roman script spelling conventions'.
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Updated 'Arabic romanization' and added 'Neo-Tifinagh romanization'.
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'Armenian romanization (updated November 2022)', Kurdish romanization (updated November 2022), Macedonian Cyrillic romanization (updated November 2022), Moldovan: table of correspondences (updated November 2022), Russian Romanization (updated November 2022), Serbian Cyrillic: table of correspondences (updated November 2022) and Uzbek: table of correspondences (updated November 2022) have been added.
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Updated 'Amharic romanization', 'Tajik romanization', 'Tigrinya romanization' and 'Moldovan: table of correspondences'.
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Updated Azerbaijani: table of correspondences, Bulgarian romanization, Korean romanization: for use in the Republic of Korea, Korean romanization: for use in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and Turkmen: table of correspondences.
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Addition of: Romanization of Belarusian, Georgian, Ukrainian, Maldivian, Kyrgyz and Kazakh.
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Added and new version of Roman script spelling conventions.
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Added a new introduction and Appendix B.
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Added an updated version of Azerbaijani: table of correspondences.
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Added updated version of the romanization of Hebrew.
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Updated version of Ukraine romanization pdf added.
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Added updated documents for Romanization of Persian, Romanization of Arabic and Romanization of Ukrainian.
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Added updated documents: Table of correspondence for Chechen, and Romanizations of Chuvash, Ossetian and Rusyn.
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Updated the following documents: Kabardian romanization, Yakut romanization, Bashkir: table of correspondences, Udmurt romanization, Tatar: table of correspondences and Karachay-Balkar: table of correspondences.
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Updated documents for the following languages: Azerbaijani, Kyrgyz, Maldivian, Moldovan, Mongolian, Serbian, Tajik, Turkmen, Ukrainian and Uzbek.
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Added updated romanization documents for Avar, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Kazakh and Macadonian.
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Added updated romanization documents for Abkhaz, Adyghe, Armenian and Georgian.
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Added Russian Romanization (updated April 2019) PDF.
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Added Russian Romanization (April 2019).
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Updated Georgian romanization.
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Updated table of correspondences for Inuktitut.
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Updated the Abkhaz romanization.
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Updated a number of the romanization attachments.
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Updated 25 documents to the current Romanization Systems/Tables of Correspondences for February 2018.
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Added Rusyn romanisation.
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Updated Armenian, Belarusian, and Russian Romanisation systems.
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Updated Armenian, Belarusian and Russian romanisation documents.
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Added updated Japanese and Khmer documents.
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Updated the Lao romanisation document.
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Added updated Bulgarian Romanization system.
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Added revised romanization versions for Bulgarian, Macedonian and Tajik.
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Added updated Russian Romanization system.
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Updated the Russian romanisation document.
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Added updated Russian Romanization system.
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Added Macedonian and Tigrinya romanisation systems.
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Updated Urdu and Yakut Romanisation systems and several tables of correspondences.
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Added Romanisation system document for Kyrgyz, Updated the 2 Korean documents, as well as the LAO, Macedonian, Maldivian, Modern Syriac, Mongolian, Napali, Ossetian, Russian, Shan, Thai, Udmurt, and Ukrainian.
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Updated romanisation syetsm documents for Abkhaz, Adyghe, Amharic, Armenian, Avar, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Burmese, Chuvash, Dzongha, Georgian, Greek, Kabardian, Kazakh and Khmer.
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Updated the Afghan Romanisation as the previously published edition was not displaying correctly.
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First published.