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 United Nations recommended romanization system was approved in 1977 (resolution III/10), based on the system produced by the Council of Orthography and Transcription of Geographical Names, Sofia (1972). The table was published as an annex to the resolution (Third United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names. Athens, 17 August - 7 September 1977. Vol. I, Report of the Conference, p. 28). The 1977 resolution adopted one of the two systems approved by the UN conference in 1972 (II/5).
The system is used in Bulgaria and increasingly in international cartographic products. In Bulgaria there are also some other systems in use, e.g. the Bulgarian Council of Ministers had promulgated on 2 April, 1999 in the Government Gazette the decree No. 61 on personal identity documents with an annex on the romanization of names. It has been stated by the Council of Orthography and Transcription of Geographical Names that at the moment there are no plans to submit any new system for the rendering of geographical names and thus replace the approved United Nations system.
Bulgarian uses the Cyrillic script which is alphabetic. The romanization table is unambiguous and can be applied automatically. The system is on the whole reversible, although one should know the spelling rules. For example, the romanized j will correspond to ь if used after a consonant, in other cases it represents the Cyrillic й. As exception, when j is followed by a or u, the combinations ja and ju should be converted to the Cyrillic as я and ю, respectively. These romanizations could be ambiguous, if there should exist character sequences йа and йу which seems highly unlikely.
| 1 | А а | a |
| 2 | Б б | b |
| 3 | В в | v |
| 4 | Г г | g |
| 5 | Д д | d |
| 6 | Е е | e |
| 7 | Ж ж | ž |
| 8 | З з | z |
| 9 | И и | i |
| 10 | Й й | j |
| 11 | К к | k |
| 12 | Л л | l |
| 13 | М м | m |
| 14 | Н н | n |
| 15 | О о | o |
| 16 | П п | p |
| 17 | Р р | r |
| 18 | С с | s |
| 19 | Т т | t |
| 20 | У у | u |
| 21 | Ф ф | f |
| 22 | Х х | h |
| 23 | Ц ц | c |
| 24 | Ч ч | č |
| 25 | Ш ш | š |
| 26 | Щ щ | št |
| 27 | Ъ ъ | ǎ |
| 28 | Ь ь | j |
| 29 | Ю ю | ju |
| 30 | Я я | ja |
Note. Cursive forms of some characters might be formed differently: Аа Бб Вв Гг Дд Ее Жж Зз Ии Йй Кк Лл Мм Нн Оо Пп Рр Сс Тт Уу Фф Хх Цц Чч Шш Щщ Ъъ Ьь Юю Яя.
The system adopted by the Bulgarian Council of Ministers in April 1999 for the conversion of names in passports, provides for the romanization, as a single block, of the following characters differently from the UN system (the Cyrillic character is followed in parentheses by the romanization according to the UN system):
| ж (ž) | zh |
| й (j) | y |
| х (h) | h |
| ц (c) | c |
| ч (č) | ch |
| ш (š) | sh |
| щ (št) | sht |
| ъ (ǎ) | a |
| ь (j) | y |
| ю (ju) | yu |
| я (ja) | ya |
The BGN/PCGN 1952 System provides for the romanization, as a single block, of the following characters differently from the UN system (the Cyrillic character is followed in parentheses by the romanization according to the UN system):
| ж (ž) | zh |
| й (j) | y |
| х (h) | kh |
| ц (c) | ts |
| ч (č) | ch |
| ш (š) | sh |
| щ (št) | sht |
| ъ (ǎ) | ŭ |
| ь (j) | ’ |
| ю (ju) | yu |
| я (ja) | ya |
There are also notes concerning the romanization of characters abolished after the orthography reform of 1945.