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

Ukrainian

The United Nations recommended system was approved in 2012 (X/9), based on the rules for the romanization of Ukrainian adopted on January 27, 2010 by the Ukrainian Government1. The 2010 system was a modification of an earlier one adopted in 1996 by the Minister of Justice that was long used in Ukrainian maps and listings2. The first national scheme for romanizing Ukrainian names was adopted in 19933.

The system has been implemented in Ukrainian maps and gazetteers, also increasingly in international cartography. The rules apply both to geographical and personal names in Ukraine.

Ukrainian uses the Cyrillic script which is alphabetic. The system is not fully reversible: some characters are not differentiated in romanization, the apostrophe and the soft sign are not romanized at all, and certain identical romanized letter sequences can arise from different character originals.

Romanization

1 А а a
2 Б б b
3 В в v
4 Г г h, ghA
5 Ґ ґ g
6 Д д d
7 Е е e
8 Є є ie, yeB
9 Ж ж zh
10 З з z
11 И и y
12 І і i
13 Ї ї i, yiB
14 Й й i, yB
15 К к k
16 Л л l
17 М м m
18 Н н n
19 О о o
20 П п p
21 Р р r
22 С с s
23 Т т t
24 У у u
25 Ф ф f
26 Х х kh
27 Ц ц ts
28 Ч ч ch
29 Ш ш sh
30 Щ щ shch
31 Ю ю iu, yuB
32 Я я ia, yaB
33 Ь ь (not romanized)
34 ’ (not romanized)

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

Other systems of romanization

The BGN/PCGN 1965 System gives, as a single block, different Roman equivalents to the following Ukrainian characters (the national equivalents are in parentheses):

г (h/gh) h
є (ie/ye) ye
ї (i/yi) yi
й (i/y) y
ю (iu/yu) yu
я (ia/ya) ya
ь (-) ’
’ (-) ”

References

  1. Romanization System in Ukraine. Tenth United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names. New York, 31 July – 9 August 2012. Document E/CONF.101/84.
  2. Romanization of Ukrainian Geographical Names. UNGEGN, 18th Session. Geneva, 12-23 August 1996. WP No. 78.
  3. Provisional Rules of Reproducing Letters of the Ukrainian Alphabet with Latin (English) Characters. UNGEGN, 17th Session. New York, 13-24 June 1994. WP No. 73.