Meeting of the UNGEGN Working Group on Romanization
Systems
Tallinn, 9-10 October, 2006
The information is based on documents received at the L'viv meeting of the Eastern Europe, Northern and Central Asia Division of UNGEGN, 26-28 September, 2006 from Mrs Veneta Fakalieva, the Secretary of the Place Names Commission of Bulgaria. Some Internet sources have also been used.
Since some time already, the Institute of Bulgarian Language of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences had pursued a project Разбираема България / Comprehensible Bulgaria (http://transliteration.mdaar.government.bg) which aimed at making Bulgarian names accessible in romanized form. The sponsor of this project is the Ministry of Public Administration and Administrative Reform under Minister Nikolaj Vasilev. The project yielded some 30,000 Bulgarian romanized names that were presented to the public in May 2006 (http://www.dnes.bg/article.php?id=22792). The full list is accessible on the site of the project.
As explained by Mrs. Fakalieva this system was long discussed and there are likely no further changes. The system is to be applied both to geographical and personal names. In October or November 2006 it is expected that this system will be officially approved (in the form of naredba).
As is evident from attached pages (printed from the project website, see 1, 2, 3), the proposed system is practically the same that was reported by the Working Group as being adopted by the Bulgarian Council of Ministers in April 1999 for the conversion of names in passports.