REPORT ON THE CURRENT STATUS OF
UNITED NATIONS ROMANIZATION SYSTEMS FOR GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES
Compiled by the UNGEGN Working Group on Romanization Systems
Version 3.0, March 2009
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 resolution1. The 1977 resolution adopted one of the two systems approved by the UN conference in 1972 (II/5).
The system is not used any more in Bulgaria since in 2006 another official romanization was introduced, with the intention of replacing the 1972 system (see below for details).
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.
The current UN-approved romanization is as follows.
| 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 Bulgarian official system of 20062 provides for the romanization, as a single block, of the following characters differently from the current 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) | ts |
| ч (č) | ch |
| ш (š) | sh |
| щ (št) | sht |
| ъ (ǎ) | a |
| ь (j) | y |
| ю (ju) | yu |
| я (ja) | yaA |
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.