Romanization of the Ukrainian alphabet

Romanization – is the representation of a word or language with Roman (Latin) alphabet or a system for doing so.

Romanization includes 2 methods: transcription and transliteration.

§ Transcription – is the substitution of sounds in the process of translation.

§ Transliteration – is the substitution of letters in the process of translation.

In most cases Romanization involves a compromise between transcription and transliteration.

There are 2 official systems of Romanization in Ukraine:

I. The Ukrainian National Transliteration System – was adopted by the Ukrainian Legal Terminology Commission on the 19^th of April 1996.

This system is based on English orthography (only English letters) and is widely used to represent Ukrainian geographical names, which were romanized from Russian before Ukrainian independence in 1991.

Provisions:

1) The use of the approved system is binding for the transliteration of Ukrainian names into English in official and legislative acts.

2) This system itself is not mandatory for the transliteration of foreign names into Ukrainian (it has only one-way direction Ukr-Eng).

3) Transliteration must be performed directly between Ukrainian and English without the use of any intermediary languages

ex. Odessa (from Russian) – Odesa (from Ukrainian)

4) This system allows a number of simplifications:

§ softening and apostrophe marks (ь/’) may be omitted in transliteration, except for ьо= ‘o / ьі= ‘i

§ Ukrainian letters which correspond to 2 Latin letters, if doubled in Ukrainian, may be transliterated as 1 Ukrainian letter

ex. Zapori zhzh ya – Zapori zh ya

5) The system includes a short list of official spellings:

Ukraine, Crimea (without the, not Ukrayina)

the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov

6) In certain cases, traditional forms may be given in parentheses () after the official variants:

ex. The traditional form Dnieper may be given after the official variant Dnipro: Dnipro (Dnieper)

Ukrainian letters	English letters	Notes	Examples
А	A
Б	B
В	V
Г	H, Gh	H – in most cases, Gh – when recreating “г” in combination “зг”	згинути
Г	G
Д	D
Е	E
Є	Ye, ie	Ye – at the beginning, ie – in other position	Yeltsin
Ж	Zh
З	Z
И	Y
І	I
Ї	Yi, i	Yi – at the beginning, i – in other position
Й	Y, i	Y – at the beginning, i – in other position
К	K
Л	L
М	M
Н	N
О	O
П	P
Р	R
С	S
Т	T
У	U
Ф	F
Х	Kh
Ц	Ts
Ч	Ch
Ш	Sh
Щ	Sch
Ь	’	may be omitted
Ю	Yu, iu	Yu – at the beginning, iu – in other position	Yushchenko
Я	Ya, ia	Ya – at the beginning, ia – in other position	Yanukovych
’	’	may be omitted

II. The Ukrainian Official Transliteration System for Personal Names in Ukrainian Passports – was adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers in 2007 (on 26 of June?).

According to this system:

The Ukrainian letters Г and Г’ are transliterated as G

Є – Ie (irrespective of the position) І – I Щ - Shch

Ю – Iu (irrespective of the position) Ї – I Ь – is not transliterated (ignored)

Я – Ia (irrespective of the position) Й – I ’ – is not transliterated (ignored)