REPORT ON THE CURRENT STATUS OF
UNITED NATIONS ROMANIZATION SYSTEMS FOR GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES
Compiled by the UNGEGN Working Group on Romanization Systems
Version 4.0, February 2013

Belarusian

The United Nations recommended system was approved in 2012 (X/6), based on the national system of romanization that was adopted in its present form on 11 June, 2007 by the State Committee on Property, Republic of Belarus¹. Based on the traditional Roman alphabet (lacinka), the first draft of it was compiled in 1998 and subsequently officially adopted in 2000².

The system has been implemented in Belarusian maps and gazetteers.

Belarusian uses the Cyrillic script which is alphabetic. The system is on the whole reversible though e.g. the apostrophe is not romanized.

Romanization

1	А а	a
2	Б б	b
3	В в	v
4	Г г	h
5	Д д	d
6	Е е	jeA, ieB
7	Ё ё	joA, ioB
8	Ж ж	ž
9	З з	z
10	І і	i
11	Й й	j
12	К к	k
13	Л л	l
14	М м	m
15	Н н	n
16	О о	o
17	П п	p
18	Р р	r
19	С с	s
20	Т т	t
21	У у	u
22	Ў ў	ŭ
23	Ф ф	f
24	Х х	ch
25	Ц ц	c
26	Ч ч	č
27	Ш ш	š
28	’	(not romanized)
29	Ы ы	y
30	Ь ь	(C)
31	Э э	e
32	Ю ю	juA, iuB
33	Я я	jaA, iaB

• ^A Initially, after vowels, apostrophe, ь and ў.
• ^B After consonants.
• ^C This character is romanized with a combining acute on the preceding letter as follows: дзь → dź, зь → ź, ль → ĺ, нь → ń, сь → ś, ць → ć.

Note. Cursive forms of some characters might be formed differently: Аа Бб Вв Гг Дд Ее Ёё Жж Зз Іі Йй Кк Лл Мм Нн Оо Пп Рр Сс Тт Уу Ўў Фф Хх Цц Чч Шш ’ Ыы Ьь Ээ Юю Яя.

Other systems of romanization

The BGN/PCGN 1979 System gives, as a single block, different Roman equivalents to the following characters (the UN equivalents are in parentheses):

е (je/ie)	ye
ё (jo/io)	yo
ж (ž)	zh
й (j)	y
ў (ŭ)	w
х (ch)	kh
ц (c)	ts
ч (č)	ch
ш (š)	sh
’	"
ь (´)	’ A
ю (ju/iu)	yu
я (ja/ia)	ya

• ^A Romanized with a spacing apostrophe, e.g. зь → z’.

References

1. The Roman alphabet transliteration of Belarusian geographical names. Tenth United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names. New York, 31 July – 9 August 2012. Document E/CONF.101/CRP2. See also: National System of Geographic Names Transmission into Roman Alphabet in Belarus. Ninth United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names. New York, 21-30 August 2007. Document E/CONF.98/CRP.21.
2. Nacional’nyj Reestr Pravovyh Aktov Respubliki Belarus’ (National Registry of Legal Acts, Republic of Belarus) No. 3, 11 January 2001.