UNITED NATIONS GROUP OF EXPERTS ON GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES (UNGEGN)

Working Group on Romanization Systems

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NB! Since May 2023 this web site is an archive of WGRS documents, reports, etc. which will remain accessible but will not be updated. For an up-to-date information please visit the UNGEGN WGRS web site.


Report on the Current Status of United Nations Romanization Systems for Geographical Names

See also an important note on links and report versions.

Beginning 2018 the previous practice of reissuing all the romanization systems after an UN Conference is revised. Only substantive changes to a system would result in a new version of the system being posted. Substantive changes would be recorded as a new version, e.g. V4 becoming V5, where minor editorial changes would be captured simply as e.g. V4.1.

Romanization systems

Language/script Version Date PDF HTML Notes
Languages/scripts covered by systems recommended by the United Nations (30):
Amharic 4.0 2016-03-30 pdf html  
Arabic 5.0 2018-06-09 pdf html  
Assamese 4.0 2016-03-30 pdf html  
Belarusian 4.0 2013-02-26 pdf html  
Bengali 4.0 2016-03-30 pdf html  
Bulgarian 4.0 2013-02-26 pdf html  
Chinese 4.0 2013-09-24 pdf html  
Greek 4.0 2016-03-30 pdf html  
Gujarati 4.0 2016-03-30 pdf html  
Hebrew 4.0 2013-02-26 pdf html  
Hindi 4.0 2016-03-30 pdf html  
Kannada 4.0 2016-03-30 pdf html  
Khmer 4.0 2013-09-24 pdf html  
Macedonian Cyrillic 4.0 2013-02-26 pdf html  
Malayalam 4.0 2016-03-30 pdf html  
Marathi 4.0 2016-03-30 pdf html  
Mongolian (in China) 4.0 2013-09-24 pdf html  
Nepali 4.0 2013-02-26 pdf html  
Oriya 4.0 2016-03-30 pdf html  
Persian 4.0 2013-02-26 pdf html  
Punjabi 4.0 2016-03-30 pdf html  
Russian 4.0 2016-03-30 pdf html  
Serbian 4.0 2016-03-30 pdf html  
Tamil 4.0 2016-03-30 pdf html  
Telugu 4.0 2016-03-30 pdf html  
Thai 4.0 2013-09-24 pdf html  
Tibetan 4.0 2013-09-24 pdf html  
Uighur 4.0 2013-09-24 pdf html  
Ukrainian 4.0 2013-02-26 pdf html  
Urdu 4.0 2016-03-30 pdf html  
Other languages/scripts (15):
Armenian 4.0 2016-03-30 pdf html  
Burmese 4.0 2013-09-24 pdf html  
Dzongkha 4.0 2013-09-24 pdf html  
Georgian 4.1 2018-12-17 pdf html 2018: added a note on the Presidential decree of 2011
Japanese 4.0 2013-09-24 pdf html  
Kazakh 4.0 2016-03-30 pdf html  
Kirghiz 4.0 2016-03-30 pdf html  
Korean 4.0 2013-09-24 pdf html  
Lao 4.0 2013-09-24 pdf html  
Maldivian 4.0 2016-03-30 pdf html  
Mongolian (Cyrillic) 4.0 2016-03-30 pdf html  
Pashto 4.0 2016-03-30 pdf html  
Sinhala 5.0 2021-10-21 pdf html  
Tajik 4.0 2016-03-30 pdf html  
Tigrinya 4.0 2013-02-26 pdf html  


Obsolete systems (versions 4.0 and higher)

Language/script Version Date PDF HTML Notes
Languages/scripts covered by systems recommended by the United Nations:
Arabic 4.0 2016-03-30 pdf html  
Other languages/scripts:
Georgian 4.0 2013-02-26 pdf html  
Sinhalese 4.0 2013-03-30 pdf html  


Version 3.0. March 2008 – November 2010


Version 2.3. December 2006

Version 2.2. January 2003 [published 2003-02-20]

Version 2.1. June 2002

See technical papers, CRP. 81, published at the UNGEGN website.


Version 1.3. March 2000

Updated: 2013-12-21