REPORT ON THE CURRENT STATUS OF
UNITED NATIONS ROMANIZATION SYSTEMS FOR GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES
Compiled by the UNGEGN Working Group on Romanization Systems
Version 2.2, January 2003
The following table contains languages with non-Roman writing systems as identified in the Report of the Working Group on Toponymic Data Exchange Formats and Standards (7th United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names. New York, 13-22 January 1998. Document E/CONF.91/CRP.11). It also contains some other languages mentioned in the toponymic guidelines for individual countries.
Languages are arranged alphabetically according to their English name. The names of languages conform to those mentioned in the appropriate United Nations resolutions.
In column 3 countries are shown where at least one of the official languages is the language concerned. Official languages are identifed in the report of the Working Group of Country Names (Country Names. Eighth United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names. Berlin, 27 August – 5 September 2002. Document E/CONF.94/CRP.11).
In column 4 the year of the adoption of the system by the United Nations is given. The numerals that follow in parentheses refer to the United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names (preceding the slash), and to the resolution number (following the slash).
In column 5 various other systems are mentioned that could have some international usage. The equal sign (=) will indicate that the systems in question more or less coincide. By a national system one would ordinarily mean those adopted by national cartographic services for rendering their geographical names. BGN/PCGN refers to systems jointly adopted by the United States Board on Geographic Names and the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use. Almost all of these systems have been published in a book "Romanization Systems and Roman-Script Spelling Conventions" by the Defense Mapping Agency (U.S.) in 1994. I.G.N. stands for Institut Géographique National in France. ISO is the abbreviation for the International Organization for Standardization, and its systems here are presented for the sake of integrity. ISO transliteration schemes are normally not used for rendering geographical names.
| Language | Writing System | Country (Countries) | Romanization Systems | |
| United Nations | Other | |||
| Amharic | Ethiopic | Ethiopia | 1967 (I/17) | |
| BGN/PCGN 1967 | ||||
| Arabic | Perso-Arabic | (General) | 1972 (II/8) | = BGN/PCGN 1956 |
| I.G.N. System 1973 | ||||
| |
ISO 233:1984 (transliteration) ISO 233-2:1993 (simplified transliteration) | |||
| Algeria | (see General) | |||
| Bahrain | (see General) | |||
| Chad | (see General) | |||
| Comoros (the) | (see General) | |||
| Djibouti | (see General) | |||
| Egypt | (see General) | |||
| National: Survey of Egypt | ||||
| Eritrea | (see General) | |||
| Iraq | (see General) | |||
| Israel | (see General) | |||
| Jordan | (see General) | |||
| National: Royal Jordanian Geographic Centre System | ||||
| Kuwait | (see General) | |||
| Lebanon | (see General) | |||
| National: 1963 | ||||
| Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (the) | (see General) | |||
| Mauritania | (see General) | |||
| Morocco | (see (General) | |||
| National: 1932 | ||||
| Oman | (see General) | |||
| Qatar | (see General) | |||
| Saudi Arabia | (see General) | |||
| Somalia | (see General) | |||
| Sudan (the) | (see General) | |||
| Syrian Arab Republic (the) | (see General) | |||
| Tunisia | (see General) | |||
| United Arab Emirates (the) | (see General) | |||
| Yemen | (see General) | |||
| Armenian | Armenian | Armenia | — | BGN/PCGN 1981 |
| ISO 9985:1996 | ||||
| Assamese | Bengali | India | 1972 (II/11), 1977 (III/12) | |
| National: Hunterian System | ||||
| Bengali | Bengali | Bangladesh | 1972 (II/11), 1977 (III/12) | |
| National: Hunterian System | ||||
| India | 1972 (II/11), 1977 (III/12) | |||
| National: Hunterian System | ||||
| Bulgarian | Cyrillic | Bulgaria | 1977 (III/10) | |
| BGN/PCGN 1952 | ||||
| Burmese | Burmese | Myanmar | — | BGN/PCGN 1970 |
| Byelorussian | Cyrillic | Belarus | — | National: 2000 |
| BGN/PCGN 1979 | ||||
| Chinese | Chinese | China | 1977 (III/8) | = BGN/PCGN 1979; = ISO 7098:1991 |
| Modified Wade-Giles (1912) | ||||
| Singapore | — | Modified Wade-Giles (1912) | ||
| Dari | Perso-Arabic | Afghanistan | 1967 (I/13)¹ | |
| Dzongkha | Dzongkha | Bhutan | — | National: 1997 |
| Georgian | Georgian | Georgia | — | National: 2002 |
| BGN/PCGN 1981 | ||||
| ISO 9984:1996 | ||||
| Greek | Greek | Cyprus | 1987 (V/19) | = ELOT 743, = ISO 843:1997 |
| Greece | 1987 (V/19) | |||
| Gujarati | Gujarati | India | 1972 (II/11), 1977 (III/12) | |
| National: Hunterian System | ||||
| Hebrew | Hebrew | Israel | 1977 (III/13) | = BGN/PCGN 1962 |
| ISO 259:1984 (transliteration) ISO 259-2:1994 (simplified transliteration), ISO/DIS 259-3 (phonemic conversion) | ||||
| Hindi | Devanagari | India | 1972 (II/11), 1977 (III/12) | |
| National: Hunterian System | ||||
| ISO 15919:2001 | ||||
| Japanese | Sino-Japanese | Japan | — | National: Kunrei-siki (1954), = ISO 3602:1989 |
| National: Modified Hepburn, = BGN/PCGN | ||||
| Kannada | Kannada | India | 1972 (II/11), 1977 (III/12) | |
| National: Hunterian System | ||||
| Kazakh | Cyrillic | Kazakhstan | — | BGN/PCGN 1979 |
| Khmer | Khmer | Cambodia | 1972 (II/10) | = BGN/PCGN 1972 |
| National: provisional 1995 | ||||
| Kirghiz | Cyrillic | Kyrgyzstan | — | BGN/PCGN 1979 |
| Korean | Korean | (General) | — | McCune–Reischauer 1939, = BGN/PCGN |
| |
Yale System 1967 | |||
| ISO/TR 11941:1996 | ||||
| Democratic People's Republic of Korea (the) | — | National: 1992 | ||
| Republic of Korea (the) | — | National: 2000 | ||
| Lao | Lao | Lao People's Democratic Republic (the) | — | BGN/PCGN 1966 |
| Macedonian Cyrillic | Cyrillic | The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia | 1977 (III/11) | = BGN/PCGN 1981 |
| Malayalam | Malayalam | India | 1972 (II/11), 1977 (III/12) | |
| National: Hunterian System | ||||
| Maldivian | Divehi (Thaana) | Maldives | — | National: 1987 (= BGN/PCGN 1988) |
| Marathi | Devanagari | India | 1972 (II/11), 1977 (III/12) | |
| National: Hunterian System | ||||
| Mongolian | Cyrillic | Mongolia | — | BGN/PCGN 1964 |
| Mongolian | China | 1977 (III/8)² | ||
| Mongolia | — | |||
| Nepali | Devanagari | Nepal | 1972 (II/11), 1977 (III/12) | |
| BGN/PCGN 1964 | ||||
| Oriya | Oriya | India | 1972 (II/11), 1977 (III/12) | |
| National: Hunterian System | ||||
| Pashto | Perso-Arabic | Afghanistan | — | BGN/PCGN 1968 |
| Persian | Perso-Arabic | Iran (Islamic Republic of) | 1967 (I/13) | = BGN/PCGN 1958 |
| Punjabi | Gurmukhi | India | 1972 (II/11), 1977 (III/12) | |
| National: Hunterian System | ||||
| Russian | Cyrillic | Belarus | 1987 (V/18) | |
| Kazakhstan | 1987 (V/18) | |||
| Kyrgyzstan | 1987 (V/18) | |||
| Russia | 1987 (V/18) | |||
| BGN/PCGN 1947 | ||||
| ISO 9:1995 (transliteration) | ||||
| Serbian | Cyrillic | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 1977 (III/11) | |
| Serbia and Montenegro | 1977 (III/11) | |||
| Sinhalese | Sinhalese | Sri Lanka | — | |
| Tajik | Cyrillic | Tajikistan | — | BGN/PCGN 1994 |
| Tamil | Tamil | India | 1972 (II/11), 1977 (III/12) | |
| National: Hunterian System | ||||
| Singapore | 1972 (II/11), 1977 (III/12) | |||
| Sri Lanka | 1972 (II/11), 1977 (III/12) | |||
| Telugu | Telugu | India | 1972 (II/11), 1977 (III/12) | |
| National: Hunterian System | ||||
| Thai | Thai | Thailand | 1967 (I/14), 2002 (VIII/13) | = BGN/PCGN 1970 |
| ISO 11940:1998 (transliteration) | ||||
| Tibetan | Tibetan | China | 1977 (III/8)² | |
| Tigrinya | Ethiopic | Eritrea | — | BGN/PCGN 1994 |
| Uighur | Perso-Arabic | China | 1977 (III/8)² | |
| Ukrainian | Cyrillic | Ukraine | — | National: 1996 |
| BGN/PCGN 1965 | ||||
| Urdu | Perso-Arabic | India | 1972 (II/11), 1977 (III/12) | |
| National: Hunterian System | ||||
| Pakistan | 1972 (II/11), 1977 (III/12) | |||
| National: Hunterian System | ||||
Notes.