BGN/PCGN romanization are the systems for

romanization Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, a ...

and Roman-script spelling conventions adopted by the

United States Board on Geographic Names The United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) is a federal body operating under the United States Secretary of the Interior. The purpose of the board is to establish and maintain uniform usage of geographic names throughout the federal govern ...

(BGN) and the

Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use The Permanent Committee on Geographical Names (PCGN) is an independent inter-departmental body in the United Kingdom established in 1919. Its function is to establish standard names for places outside the UK, for the use of the British governm ...

(PCGN). The systems have been approved by the BGN and the PCGN for application to geographic names, but they have also been used for personal names and text in the US and the UK. Details of all the jointly approved systems are outlined in the

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is a combat support agency within the United States Department of Defense whose primary mission is collecting, analyzing, and distributing geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) in support of natio ...

publication ''Romanization Systems and Policies'' (2012), which superseded the BGN 1994 publication ''Romanization Systems and Roman-Script Spelling Conventions''. Romanization systems and spelling conventions for different languages have been gradually introduced over the course of several years. The currently used set is available on the UK government site. A complete list of BGN/PCGN systems and agreements covering the following languages is given below (the date of adoption is given in the parentheses). The status "agreement" refers to systems which were created by authorities of the corresponding nations and then adopted by BGN and PCGN.

Systems

BGN/PCGN romanization
of Adyghe (2012 system)
BGN/PCGN national romanization system for Afghanistan
(for

Pashto Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani (). Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official langua ...

and

Dari Dari (, , ), also known as Dari Persian (, ), is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan. Dari is the term officially recognised and promoted since 1964 by the Afghan government for the Persian language,Lazard, G.Darī ...

, 2007 system)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of

Amharic Amharic ( or ; (Amharic: ), ', ) is an Ethiopian Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amharas, and also serves as a lingua franca for all oth ...

(1967 system)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

(1956 system; BGN 1946, PCGN 1956)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of Armenian (1981 system)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of Avar (2011 system)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of

Azerbaijani Azerbaijani may refer to: * Something of, or related to Azerbaijan * Azerbaijanis * Azerbaijani language See also * Azerbaijan (disambiguation) * Azeri (disambiguation) * Azerbaijani cuisine * Culture of Azerbaijan The culture of Azerbaijan ...

Cyrillic script The Cyrillic script ( ), Slavonic script or the Slavic script, is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking c ...

(2002 table of correspondences)—note that the Government of Azerbaijan abandoned the Cyrillic script in 1991 and adopted the Roman alphabet to replace it
BGN/PCGN romanization
of Baluchi (2008 system)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of Bashkir (2007 agreement)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of Belarusian (1979 System)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of Bulgarian (BGN/PCGN 2013 agreement reflecting the official Bulgarian system.Romanization system for Bulgarian: BGN/PCGN 2013 System.
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, September 2014.)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of Burmese (1970 agreement)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of Chechen (2008 table of correspondences)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of Chinese (1979 agreement)—Chinese characters are romanized by BGN/PCGN by means of the

Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese fo ...

system
BGN/PCGN romanization
of Chuvash (2011 system)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of

Dzongkha Dzongkha (; ) is a Sino-Tibetan language that is the official and national language of Bhutan. It is written using the Tibetan script. The word means "the language of the fortress", from ' "fortress" and ' "language". , Dzongkha had 171,080 ...

(2010 agreement)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of Georgian (2009 agreement)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

(1996 agreement)—Greek is romanized by BGN/PCGN by means of the ELOT 743 system
BGN/PCGN romanization
of

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

(2018 agreement)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of

Inuktitut Inuktitut (; , syllabics ; from , "person" + , "like", "in the manner of"), also Eastern Canadian Inuktitut, is one of the principal Inuit languages of Canada. It is spoken in all areas north of the tree line, including parts of the provinces o ...

(2013 agreement)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of Japanese

Kana The term may refer to a number of syllabaries used to write Japanese phonological units, morae. Such syllabaries include (1) the original kana, or , which were Chinese characters ( kanji) used phonetically to transcribe Japanese, the most ...

(2017 agreement)—Japanese is romanized by BGN/PCGN by means of the modified Hepburn system)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of Kabardian (2011 system)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of

Karachay-Balkar Karachay-Balkar (, ), or Mountain Turkic (, ), is a Turkic language spoken by the Karachays and Balkars in Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay–Cherkessia, European Russia, as well as by an immigrant population in Afyonkarahisar Province, Tur ...

(2008 table of correspondences)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of Kazakh (1979 system)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of Khmer (1972 agreement)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of Korean (North Korea) (BGN/PCGN 1945 agreement); of Korean in

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...

—Korean is romanized by BGN/PCGN by means of the McCune–Reischauer system.
BGN/PCGN romanization
of Korean (

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

) (2011 agreement) of Korean in

—Korean is romanized by BGN/PCGN by means of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism System (2000) system.
BGN/PCGN romanization
of Kurdish (2007 system)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of

Kyrgyz Kyrgyz, Kirghiz or Kyrgyzstani may refer to: * Someone or something related to Kyrgyzstan *Kyrgyz people *Kyrgyz national games *Kyrgyz language *Kyrgyz culture *Kyrgyz cuisine *Yenisei Kirghiz *The Fuyü Gïrgïs language in Northeastern China ...

(1979 system)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of Lao (1966 agreement)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of

Macedonian Macedonian most often refers to someone or something from or related to Macedonia. Macedonian(s) may specifically refer to: People Modern * Macedonians (ethnic group), a nation and a South Slavic ethnic group primarily associated with North Ma ...

(2013 agreement)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of Maldivian (1988 agreement, with modifications 2009)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of Moldovan (2002 table of correspondences)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of Mongolian cyrillic (1964 system; PCGN 1957, BGN 1964)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of

Nepali Nepali or Nepalese may refer to : Concerning Nepal * Anything of, from, or related to Nepal * Nepali people, citizens of Nepal * Nepali language, an Indo-Aryan language found in Nepal, the current official national language and a language spoken ...

(2011 agreement)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of Ossetian (2009 system)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of

(1968 system, 2017 revision)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of Persian (1958 system; updated 2019)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of Russian (1947 system; BGN 1944, PCGN 1947)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of

Rusyn Rusyn may refer to: * Rusyn people, an East Slavic people ** Pannonian Rusyn people, a branch of Rusyn people ** Lemkos, a branch of Rusyn (or Ukrainian) people ** Boykos, a branch of Rusyn (or Ukrainian) people * Rusyn language, an East Slavic l ...

(2016 system)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of

Serbian Serbian may refer to: * someone or something related to Serbia, a country in Southeastern Europe * someone or something related to the Serbs, a South Slavic people * Serbian language * Serbian names See also * * * Old Serbian (disambiguation ...

(

)(2005 table of correspondences)— Serbian is not romanized by BGN/PCGN; instead, the Roman script that corresponds to the Cyrillic script is used
BGN/PCGN romanization
of Shan (2011 system)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of Modern Syriac (2011 system)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of Tajik (1994 system)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of

Tatar The Tatars ()Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different

(2005 table of correspondences)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of Thai (2002 agreement)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of Tigrinya (2007 system)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of Turkmen (2000 table of correspondences)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of Udmurt (2011 system)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

(2019 agreement)—see

Romanization of Ukrainian The romanization of Ukrainian, or Latinization of Ukrainian, is the representation of the Ukrainian language in Latin letters. Ukrainian is natively written in its own Ukrainian alphabet, which is based on the Cyrillic script. Romanization may be ...

BGN/PCGN romanization
of

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' BGN/PCGN romanization
of Uzbek (2000 table of correspondences)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of Yakut (2012 system) In addition to the systems above, BGN/PCGN adopted Roman Script Spelling Conventions for languages that use the Roman alphabet but use letters not present in the English alphabet. These conventions exist for the following four languages:
BGN/PCGN romanization
of Faroese (1968 agreement)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

(2000 agreement)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of Icelandic (1968 agreement)
BGN/PCGN romanization
of

Northern Sami Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a ...

The original publication refers to the language as ''Northern Lappish''. (1984 agreement)

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bgn Pcgn Romanization