Romanization of Georgian

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Mtskheta and Tbilisi romanized

Romanization of Georgian is the process of transliterating the Georgian language from the Georgian script into the Latin script.

Georgian national system of romanization[]

This system, adopted in February 2002 by the State Department of Geodesy and Cartography of Georgia and the Institute of Linguistics, Georgian National Academy of Sciences, establishes a transliteration system of the Georgian letters into Latin letters.[1] The system was already in use, since 1998, on driving licenses. It is also used by BGN and PCGN since 2009.

Unofficial system of romanization[]

Despite its popularity this system sometimes leads to ambiguity. The system is mostly used in social networks, forums, chat rooms, etc. The system is greatly influenced by the common case-sensitive Georgian keyboard layout that ties each key to each letter in the alphabet (seven of them: T, W, R, S, J, Z, C with the help of the shift key to make another letter).

ISO standard[]

ISO 9984:1996, "Transliteration of Georgian characters into Latin characters", was last reviewed and confirmed in 2010.[2] The guiding principles in the standard are:

  • No digraphs, i.e. one Latin letter per Georgian letter (apart from the apostrophe-like "High comma off center" (ISO 5426), which is mapped[3] to "Combining comma above right" (U+0315) in Unicode, for aspirated consonants, whereas ejectives are unmarked, e.g.: კ → k, ქ → k̕
  • Extended characters are mostly Latin letters with caron (haček – ž, š, č̕, č, ǰ), with the exception of "g macron" ღ → ḡ. Archaic extended characters are ē, ō, and ẖ (h with line below).
  • No capitalization, both as it does not appear in the original script, and to avoid confusion with claimed popular ad hoc transliterations of caron characters as capitals instead. (e.g. შ as S for š)

Transliteration table[]

Georgian letter IPA National system
(2002) 		BGN/PCGN
(1981—2009) 		ISO 9984
(1996) 		ALA-LC
(1997) 		Unofficial system Kartvelo translit
ა /ɑ/ a a a a a a
ბ /b/ b b b b b
გ /ɡ/ g g g g g g
დ /d/ d d d d d
ე /ɛ/ e e e e e e
ვ /v/ v v v v v v
ზ /z/ z z z z z z
ჱ[a] /eɪ/ ey ē ē é ej
თ /tʰ/ t tʼ t̕ tʻ T[b] or t t
ი /i/ i i i i i i
კ /kʼ/ kʼ k k k k ǩ
ლ /l/ l l l l l l
მ /m/ m m m m m m
ნ /n/ n n n n n n
ჲ[a] /i/, /j/ j y y j
ო /ɔ/ o o o o o o
პ /pʼ/ pʼ p p p p p̌
ჟ /ʒ/ zh zh ž ž J,[b] zh or j ž
რ /r/ r r r r r r
ს /s/ s s s s s s
ტ /tʼ/ tʼ t t t t t̆
ჳ[a] /w/ w w ŭ
უ /u/ u u u u u u
ფ /pʰ/ p pʼ p̕ pʻ p or f p
ქ /kʰ/ k kʼ k̕ kʻ q or k q or k
ღ /ʁ/ gh gh ḡ ġ g, gh or R[b] g, gh or R[b]
ყ /qʼ/ qʼ q q q y[c] q
შ /ʃ/ sh sh š š sh or S[b] š
ჩ /t͡ʃ(ʰ)/ ch chʼ č̕ čʻ ch or C[b] č
ც /t͡s(ʰ)/ ts tsʼ c̕ cʻ c or ts c
ძ /d͡z/ dz dz j ż dz or Z[b] ʒ
წ /t͡sʼ/ tsʼ ts c c w, c or ts ʃ
ჭ /t͡ʃʼ/ chʼ ch č č W,[b] ch or tch ʃ̌
ხ /χ/ kh kh x x x or kh (rarely) x
ჴ[a] /q/, /qʰ/ qʼ ẖ x̣ q̌
ჯ /d͡ʒ/ j j ǰ j j -
ჰ /h/ h h h h h h
ჵ[a] /oː/ ō ō ȯ


Notes[]

  1. ^ a b c d e Archaic letters.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h These are influenced by aforementioned layout, and are preferred to avoid ambiguity, as an expressions: t, j, g, ch can mean two letters.
  3. ^ Initially, the use of y letter for ყ is most probably due to their resemblance to each other.

References[]

  1. ^ United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (2007). Technical reference manual for the standardization of geographical names (PDF). United Nations. p. 64. ISBN 978-92-1-161500-5. Retrieved 7 January 2013.
  2. ^ ISO 9984:1996, Transliteration of Georgian characters into Latin characters
  3. ^ Evertype.com: ISO 5426 mapping to Unicode; Joan M. Aliprand: Finalized Mapping between Characters of ISO 5426 and ISO/IEC 10646-1; The Unicode Standard: Spacing Modifier Letters.

External links[]

  • [1] Transliteration web utility for the National and ISO transliteration of Georgian
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