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, March 2016

Gujarati

The United Nations recommended system was approved in 1972 (II/11) and amended in 1977 (III/12), based on a report prepared by D. N. Sharma. The tables and their corrections were published in volume II of the conference reports1,2.

There is no evidence of the use of the system either in India or in international cartographic products.

Gujarati (Gujarātī) uses an alphasyllabic script whereby each character represents a syllable rather than one sound. Vowels and diphthongs are marked in two ways: as independent characters (used syllable-initially) and in an abbreviated form, to denote vowels after consonants. The romanization table is unambiguous but the user would have to recognize many ligatures not given in the original table. For two vowel letters (e/ĕ, o/ŏ) there is uncertainty as to the conditions in which either of the two variants is to be used. The system is mostly reversible but there exist some ambiguities in the romanization of vowels (independent vs. abbreviated characters) and consonants (ligatures vs. character sequences).

Romanization

In the romanization system below the table of ligatures has been added.

I. Independent vowel characters

1 અ a
2 આ ā
3 ઇ i
4 ઈ ī
5 ઉ u
6 ઊ ū
7 ઋ ṛ
8 એ e, ĕ
9 ઐ ai
10 ઓ o, ŏ
11 ઔ au

II. Abbreviated vowel characters (ક stands for any consonant character)

1 ક a
2 કા ā
3 કિ i
4 કી īA
5 કુ u
6 કૂ ūB
7 કૃ ṛ
8 કે e, ĕ
9 કૈ ai
10 કો o, ŏ
11 કૌ au

III. Other symbols
(These symbols were missing in the original table.)

1 કં ṁ
2 કઁ m̐
3 કઃ ḥ
4 ક્‌ (A)

IV. Consonant characters

1 ક ka
2 ખ kha
3 ગ ga
4 ઘ gha
5 ઙ ṅa
6 ચ cha
7 છ chha
8 જ ja
9 ઝ jha
10 ઞ ña
11 ટ ṭa
12 ઠ ṭha
13 ડ ḍa
14 ઢ ḍha
15 ણ ṇa
16 ત ta
17 થ tha
18 દ da
19 ધ dha
20 ન na
21 પ pa
22 ફ fa
23 બ ba
24 ભ bha
25 મ ma
26 ય ya
27 ર ra
28 લ la
29 વ va
30 શ sha
31 ષ ṣha
32 સ sa
33 હ ha
34 ળ ḷa

V. Consonant ligatures

Adscript forms of some consonants

Examples
ર્‍ r- ર્ક rka, ર્મ rma
‍્ર -r ક્ર kra, બ્ર bra, ડ્ર ḍra

Other ligatures (the list is not complete)

ક્ક ક્ર ક્ષ ખ્ત ખ્ર ગ્ર ઘ્ર ઙ્ક ઙ્ખ ઙ્ગ ઙ્ઘ ઙ્મ
kka kra kṣha khta khra gra ghra ṅka ṅkha ṅga ṅgha ṅma
ચ્ર જ્જ જ્ઞ જ્ર ઝ્ર ટ્ટ ટ્ઠ ઠ્ઠ ડ્ડ ડ્ઢ ઢ્ઢ ત્ત
chra jja jña jra jhra ṭṭa ṭṭha ṭhṭha ḍḍa ḍḍha ḍhḍha tta
ત્ન ત્ર થ્ર દ્ગ દ્દ દ્ધ દ્ભ દ્મ દ્ય દ્ર દ્વ ધ્ર
tna tra thra dga dda ddha dbha dma dya dra dva dhra
ન્ન ન્ર પ્ત પ્ર ફ્ર બ્ર ભ્ર મ્ર ય્ર વ્ર શ્ન શ્ર
nna nra pta pra phra bra bhra mra yra vra shna shra
શ્વ શ્વ્ર ષ્ટ ષ્ઠ સ્ર હ્ણ હ્ન હ્મ હ્ય હ્લ હ્વ
shva shvra ṣhṭa ṣhṭha sra hṇa hna hma hya hla hva

Other systems of romanization

For differences between the UN system and the ISO transliteration standard ISO 15919: 2001 see the section on the romanization of Hindi.

References

  1. Second United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names. London, 10–31 May 1972. Vol. II. Technical papers. United Nations. New York 1974, pp. 134–135.
  2. Third United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names. Athens, 17 August – 7 September 1977. Vol. II, Technical papers, pp. 393 etc.