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, September 2013

Uighur

The United Nations resolution III/8 in 1977 recognized the Scheme for a Chinese Phonetic Alphabet (Pinyin) as China’s official Roman alphabet scheme and recommended the alphabet as the international system for the romanization of Chinese geographical names. In China Uighur geographical names are transcribed directly from the Uighur script into Pinyin. The scheme was published in Toponymic Guidelines for Map and Other Editors: China, 1982¹.

The system is used in China and in international cartographic products.

Uighur (Uygur) uses the Perso-Arabic script which is written from right to left. The romanization is based on the Scheme for a new Uighur script. The letters of that scheme which had no counterparts in the Pinyin system, such as ƣ, ⱨ, ⱪ, ə, ɵ, ⱬ were replaced by g, h, k, a (or e), o and y (or j). The scheme is unambiguous but in the form intended for general use does not differentiate some of the Uighur characters.

Romanization

1	ا	ئاA	a
2	ە	ئەA	a, eB [ä]
3	ب		b
4	پ		p
5	ت		t
6	ج		j
7	چ		q
8	خ		h
9	د		d
10	ر		r
11	ز		z
12	ژ		y, jC
13	س		s
14	ش		x
15	غ		g [ĝ]
16	ف		f
17	ق		k [k̂]
18	ك		k
19	گ		g
20	ڭ		ng
21	ل		l
22	م		m
23	ن		n
24	ۋ		w, v
25	و	ئوA	o
26	ۇ	ئۇA	u
27	ۆ	ئۆA	o [ö]
28	بۈ	ئۈA	ü
29	ه		h [ĥ]
30	ې	ئېA	e [ê]
31	ى	ئىA	i
32	ي		y

• ^A Form used word-initially.
• ^B e is used where confusion of a word's meaning arises.
• ^C y is used at the beginning of a syllable, and j at the end.

Note. Where several Roman equivalents are given, the one in brackets is used for recording the pronunciation of place-names while the other forms are for general use.

Reference

1. Fourth United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names. Geneva, 24 August – 14 September 1982. Vol. II. Technical papers, pp. 121–125.