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

Nepali

The United Nations recommended system was approved in 1972 (II/11), based on a report prepared by D. N. Sharma. The note on the system was published in volume II of the conference report (Second United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names. London, 10-31 May 1972. Vol. II. Technical papers. United Nations. New York 1974, p. 133.).

There is no evidence of the use of the system either in Nepal or in international cartographic products. The resolution IV/17 (1982) recommended association, inter alia, with Nepal in carrying out further studies on the system.

Nepali (Nepālī) uses the alphasyllabic script Devanāgarī. For further details see the Hindi section of the report.

Romanization

The romanization system is given in the Hindi section of the report. The following exceptions should be noted.

  1. In normal spelling ṙ and ṙh are not marked, instead dotless ड ḍa, ढ ḍha are used to denote these sounds.
  2. Ligatures may be formed with r as the first component: ऱ्ह rha.

Other systems of romanization

The BGN/PCGN 1964 System has the following different Roman equivalents for the romanization of Nepali:

UN BGN/PCGN
ṁ = ń
ṅ = ng
ṙ = ṛ
ṛ = ri, irA
ṝ = rī, īrA
sh = ś
ṣh = ṣ
v = w