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 2008

Byelorussian

No romanization system for Byelorussian (Belarusian) has been approved at the United Nations conferences on the standardization of geographical names. In Belarus there have been several projects of romanization, the most notable until recently being a scheme of 1992-1993, based on GOST 1983 (for Russian) and used by the national cartographic authority on maps of Belarus.

The national system of romanization for Byelorussian was first adopted on 20 March, 1998, and subsequently revised on 23 November, 2000¹. Based on traditional Roman alphabet (lacinka), after further study of the system, it was modified and adopted in its present form on 11 June, 2007 by the State Committee of the Property of the Republic of Belarus². The system is reversible though there may exist some ambiguous consonant combinations.

Systems of romanization

The national system of romanization (2007) is as follows.

1	А а	a
2	Б б	b
3	В в	v
4	Г г	h
5	Д д	d
6	Е е	jeA, ieB
7	Ё ё	joA, ioB
8	Ж ж	ž
9	З з	z
10	І і	i
11	Й й	j
12	К к	k
13	Л л	l
14	М м	m
15	Н н	n
16	О о	o
17	П п	p
18	Р р	r
19	С с	s
20	Т т	t
21	У у	u
22	Ў ў	ŭ
23	Ф ф	f
24	Х х	ch
25	Ц ц	c
26	Ч ч	č
27	Ш ш	š
28	’	(not romanized)
29	Ы ы	y
30	Ь ь	´ C
31	Э э	e
32	Ю ю	juA, iuB
33	Я я	jaA, iaB

• ^A Initially, after vowels, apostrophe, ь and ў.
• ^B After consonants.
• ^C This character is romanized with a combining acute on the preceding letter as follows: дзь → dź, зь → ź, ль → ĺ, нь → ń, сь → ś, ць → ć.

Note. Cursive forms of some characters might be formed differently: Аа Бб Вв Гг Дд Ее Ёё Жж Зз Іі Йй Кк Лл Мм Нн Оо Пп Рр Сс Тт Уу Ўў Фф Хх Цц Чч Шш ’ Ыы Ьь Ээ Юю Яя.

The BGN/PCGN 1979 System gives, as a single block, different Roman equivalents to the following Byelorussian characters (the national equivalents are in parentheses):

е (je/ie)	ye
ё (jo/io)	yo
ж (ž)	zh
й (j)	y
ў (ŭ)	w
х (ch)	kh
ц (c)	ts
ч (č)	ch
ш (š)	sh
’	"
ь (´)	’ A
ю (ju/iu)	yu
я (ja/ia)	ya

• ^A Romanized with a spacing apostrophe, e.g. зь → z’.

References

1. Nacional’nyj Reestr Pravovyh Aktov Respubliki Belarus’ (National Registry of Legal Acts, Republic of Belarus) No. 3, 11 January 2001.
2. National System of Geographic Names Transmission into Roman Alphabet in Belarus. Ninth United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names. New York, 21-30 August 2007. Document E/CONF.98/CRP.21.