Working Group on Romanization Systems
Convenor
Catherine Cheetham (United Kingdom), E-mail ccheetham@pcgn.org.uk
Mandate
The basic mandate of the Working Group is to consider and reach agreement on a single romanization system for each non-Roman writing system; the systems are for application to geographical names and should be proposed by a (donor) country. The process requires time for full consultations on technical matters between the Working Group, the proposers and potential users. Romanization systems should be based on sound scientific principles and be implemented by the proposing country. New systems are referred to the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names for endorsement and are then passed to ECOSOC for resolution and vote before becoming a United Nations standard.
The Working Group contributed Part one, "Romanization systems for geographical names" to UNGEGN's Technical reference manual for the standardization of geographical names, published by the United Nations in 2007.
In 2009, the Working Group contributed expertise to assist the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to develop documentation needed for the submission of proposals for new top-level domain names in non-Roman scripts.
Current status of UN romanization systems for geographical names
| Language/script | Version | Date | Notes | ||
| Languages/scripts covered by systems recommended by the United Nations (30): | |||||
| Amharic | 4.0 | 2016-03-30 | |||
| Arabic | 5.0 | 2018-06-09 | |||
| Assamese | 4.0 | 2016-03-30 | |||
| Belarusian | 4.0 | 2013-02-26 | |||
| Bengali | 4.0 | 2016-03-30 | |||
| Bulgarian | 4.0 | 2013-02-26 | |||
| Chinese | 4.0 | 2013-09-24 | |||
| Greek | 4.0 | 2016-03-30 | |||
| Gujarati | 4.0 | 2016-03-30 | |||
| Hebrew | 4.0 | 2013-02-26 | |||
| Hindi | 4.0 | 2016-03-30 | |||
| Kannada | 4.0 | 2016-03-30 | |||
| Khmer | 4.0 | 2013-09-24 | |||
| Macedonian Cyrillic | 4.0 | 2013-02-26 | |||
| Malayalam | 4.0 | 2016-03-30 | |||
| Marathi | 4.0 | 2016-03-30 | |||
| Mongolian (in China) | 4.0 | 2013-09-24 | |||
| Nepali | 4.0 | 2013-02-26 | |||
| Oriya | 4.0 | 2016-03-30 | |||
| Persian | 4.0 | 2013-02-26 | |||
| Punjabi | 4.0 | 2016-03-30 | |||
| Russian | 4.0 | 2016-03-30 | |||
| Serbian | 4.0 | 2016-03-30 | |||
| Tamil | 4.0 | 2016-03-30 | |||
| Telugu | 4.0 | 2016-03-30 | |||
| Thai | 4.0 | 2013-09-24 | |||
| Tibetan | 4.0 | 2013-09-24 | |||
| Uighur | 4.0 | 2013-09-24 | |||
| Ukrainian | 4.0 | 2013-02-26 | |||
| Urdu | 4.0 | 2016-03-30 | |||
| Other languages/scripts (15): | |||||
| Armenian | 4.0 | 2016-03-30 | |||
| Burmese | 4.0 | 2013-09-24 | |||
| Dzongkha | 4.0 | 2013-09-24 | |||
| Georgian | 4.1 | 2018-12-17 | 2018: added a note on the Presidential decree of 2011 | ||
| Japanese | 4.0 | 2013-09-24 | |||
| Kazakh | 4.0 | 2016-03-30 | |||
| Kirghiz | 4.0 | 2016-03-30 | |||
| Korean | 4.0 | 2013-09-24 | |||
| Lao | 4.0 | 2013-09-24 | |||
| Maldivian | 4.0 | 2016-03-30 | |||
| Mongolian (Cyrillic) | 4.0 | 2016-03-30 | |||
| Pashto | 4.0 | 2016-03-30 | |||
| Sinhala | 5.0 | 2021-10-21 | |||
| Tajik | 4.0 | 2016-03-30 | |||
| Tigrinya | 4.0 | 2013-02-26 | |||
- 2023 Session - GEGN.2/2023/11/CRP.11
- 2021 Session - GEGN.2/2021/93/CRP.93
- 2019 Session - GEGN.2/2019/11/CRP.11
- 30th Session - Working Paper no. 2
- 29th Session - Working Paper no. 50/11
- 28th Session - Working Paper no. 8/11
- 27th session - Working Paper no. 8
- 26th session - Working Paper no. 2
- 25th session - Working Paper no. 22
- 24th session - Working Paper no. 8
- 23rd session - Working Paper no. 98
- 22nd session - Working Paper no. 46
- 22nd Session - Working Paper no. 48
- 21st session - Working Paper no. 3
- 11th Conference - E/CONF.105/54/CRP.54
- 10th Conference - E/CONF.101/48
- 9th conference - E/CONF.98/CRP.3
- 8th Conference - E/CONF.94/CRP.81 and E/CONF.94/CRP.80
Resolutions on Romanization from recent Conferences
Click here to go to Resolutions
Meetings
More information, including the working papers presented at these and previous meetings, can be seen on the archived Working Group's website http://www.eki.ee/wgrs/.
Website
Meetings
More information, including the working papers presented at these and previous meetings, can be seen on the archived Working Group's website http://www.eki.ee/wgrs/
Website
The archived Working Group website can be found at http://www.eki.ee/wgrs/.
- Meetings
- Mandate
- Resolutions
- Divisions
- Working Groups
- Bureau and Convenors
- Liaison Officers
- Resources
- Events
- Links
- Contact
- UNGEGN/UN-GGIM Collaborative Project
Access the approved document here
To receive the UNGEGN bulletin, click to complete the form