Romanization of Macedonian

The romanization of Macedonian is the

transliteration

of text in Macedonian from the Macedonian Cyrillic alphabet into the

Latin alphabet

. Romanization can be used for various purposes, such as rendering of proper names in foreign contexts, or for informal writing of Macedonian in environments where Cyrillic is not easily available. Official use of romanization by North Macedonia's authorities is found, for instance, on road signage and in passports. Several different codified standards of transliteration currently exist and there is widespread variability in practice.

Romanization systems

For a number of Cyrillic letters, transliteration into matching Latin letters is straightforward. Cyrillic а, б, в, г, д, е, з, и, к, л, м, н, о, п, р, с, т, у, ф are matched with Latin ''a, b, v, g, d, e, z, i, k, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u, f'', according to all conventions. Cyrillic ц (pronounced ) is mostly rendered as ''c'', in accordance with the conventions for many other Slavic (and non-Slavic) languages. The letter х is typically rendered as ''h'', matching the pronunciation in Macedonian. For the Macedonian/Serbian letter ј, the preferred transliteration is its visual Latin counterpart ''j'' (rather than ''y'', otherwise widely used in English for the rendering of the same glide sound in other languages). For other Cyrillic letters, the choice is between a single Latin letter with a diacritic, and a digraph of two Latin letters. This goes mainly for the letters denoting palatalised consonants, and for those denoting fricatives and affricates in the

alveolar

and palatal range.

Digraph system

This system uses digraphs instead of diacritics, making it easier for use in environments where diacritics may pose a technical problem, such as typing on computers. Common usage has ''gj, kj'' for ѓ, ќ, either ''dj'' or ''dzh'' for џ, and sometimes ''ts'' for ц. Such a diacritic-free system, with digraphs ''zh, gj, dz, lj, nj, kj, ch, sh, dj'' has been adopted since 2008 for use in official documents such as passports, ID cards and driver's licenses. The system adopted for digraph transliteration i
ICAO Doc 9303
CadastreICAO Doc 9303 (page 33, 34)

The Macedonian Journal of Medical Sciences and the State Statistical Office of North Macedonia use similar digraph system.State Statistical Office

ISO 9 system

A standardized system of transliteration based on Gaj's Latin alphabet is used since 1950s and defined in ISO 9:1968; this system was also adopted by the Macedonian Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1970,Macedonian Latin alphabet, BGN/PCGN (in 2013), and ALA-LC and is taught in schools in North Macedonia It uses letters with diacritics ''ž, č, š'' for Cyrillic ж, ч, ш respectively (as for many other Slavic languages), and ''ǵ, ḱ'' for the special Macedonian letters ѓ, ќ. The palatalised consonants of Cyrillic љ, њ are rendered with digraphs ''lj, nj'' (although the academic orthography also permits using ''ĺ, ń''), and the voiced affricates of Cyrillic ѕ, џ with ''dz, dž'' respectively. The most recent edition of the Macedonian orthography mentions this system as well as the digraphic system, saying that the latter is used for personal names in official documents.

The palatal plosives ѓ, ќ are also sometimes rendered as Latin ''đ, ć'', following a Serbian convention (''đ, ć'' are the Serbian Latin equivalents of Serbian Cyrillic ђ and ћ, which etymologically correspond to Macedonian ѓ, ќ in many words.) This convention is found in the system adopted by the US Board on Geographic Names (BGN) and the British PCGN in 1981, (before 2013) as well as by the United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographic Names (UNCSGN).UNGEGN Working Group on Romanization Systems: Report on the Current Status of United Nations Romanization Systems for Geographical Names, Version 2.2, January 200

According to this system, ѓ, ќ are transliterated as plain ''g'' and ''k'' before front vowels (е, и), but as ''đ'' and ''ć'' respectively in other environments. Otherwise, this system is identical to that of ISO 9 (R:1968).

The Macedonian Academy of Arts and Sciences uses ''gj'' and ''kj'' for the palatal plosives on its official website.

The ISO 9, ISO 9:1995 is a standard that completely avoids digraphs and permits to romanize any Cyrillic text without knowing in what language it is. However, it is rarely used because of having unusual diacriticized letters.

See also

*Cyrillic alphabets
*Cyrillic script
*Macedonian alphabet
*Macedonian language
*Romanization

Notes

References

*British Standard 2979 : 1958, London: British Standards Institution.
*G. Selvelli
Su alcuni aspetti ideologici dei sistemi di traslitterazione degli alfabeti cirillici nei Balcani.
''Studi Slavistici'' XII (2015). pp. 159–180.

{{Romanization

Macedonian language
Macedonian