Second United Nations Conference on the Standardi:ation of Geographical Names. London, 10-31 May 1972.

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Vol. II. Technical papers, p. 170.
E.g.: Geographic Names Transliteration in GDMS (Saudi Arabia). Eighth United Nations Conference on the
2
Standardization of Geographical Names. Berlin, 27 August 5 September 2002. Document E/CONE.94/INE.77.
Arabic Page 1
REPORT ON THE CURRENT STATUS OF
UNlTED NATlONS ROMANlZATlON SYSTEMS FOR GEOGRAPHlCAL NAMES
Compiled by the UNGEGN Working Group on Romanization Systems
Version 2.2, January 2003

The United Nations recommended romanization system was approved in 1972 (resolution II/8),
based on the system adopted by Arabic experts at the conIerence held at Beirut in 1971 with the
practical amendments carried out and agreed upon by the representatives oI the Arabic-speaking
countries at their conIerence. The table was published in volume II oI the conIerence report .
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In the UN resolution it was speciIically pointed out that the system was recommended "Ior the
romanization oI the geographical names within those Arabic-speaking countries where this
system is oIIicially acknowledged". It cannot be deIinitely ascertained which oI the Arabic-
speaking countries have adopted this system oIIicially. Judging by the use oI names in
international cartographic products which rely mostly on national sources it appears that the UN
system is more or less current in Iraq, Kuwait, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Saudi Arabia , United
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Arab Emirates and Yemen, there and in some other countries the system is oIten used without
diacritical marks. Eor the geographical names oI the Syrian Arab Republic the international maps
Iavour the UN system while the local usage seems to preIer a Erench-oriented romanization. Also
in Egypt and Sudan there exist local romanization schemes or practices side by side with the UN
system. The geographical names oI Algeria, Djibouti, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia are
generally rendered in the traditional manner which conIorms to the principles oI the Erench
orthography.
Resolution 7 oI the Seventh UN ConIerence on the Standardization oI Geographical Names
(1998) recommended that 'the League oI Arab States should, through its specialized structures,
continue its eIIorts to organize a conIerence with a view to considering the diIIiculties
encountered in applying the amended Beirut system oI 1972 Ior the romanization oI Arabic
script, and submit, as soon as possible, a solution to the United Nations Group oI Experts on
Geographical Names. At the Eighth UN ConIerence on the Standardization oI Geographical
Names (2002), the Arabic Division oI the UN Group oI Experts announced that it had Iinalised
proposed modiIications to the UN recommended romanization system. These proposals would
be submitted to the League oI Arab States Ior approval.
Arabic is written Irom right to leIt. The Arabic script usually omits vowel points and diacritical
marks Irom writing which makes it diIIicult to obtain uniIorm results in the romanization oI
Arabic. It is essential to identiIy correctly the words which appear in any particular name and to
know the standard Arabic-script spelling including proper pointing. One must also take into
account dialectal and idiosyncratic deviations. The romanization is generally reversible though
there are some ambiguous letter sequences (dh, kh, sh, th) which may also point to combinations
oI Arabic characters in addition to the respective single characters.
Arabic Page 2

In the romanization system below column 1 denotes an independent consonant character, column
2 the initial, column 3 the medial and column 4 the Iinal Iorm oI a character. Column 5 gives the
romanization equivalent.
1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
1 . `, - 11 r 21 . . . . I
A
2 i t - 12 z 22 _ . . _ q
B
3 , , , , b 13 . . s 23 o s s d k
4 : . . : t 14 sh 24 : \ l
C
5 : . . : th 15 _ . . _ 25 , . . , m
6 , , _ j 16 _ . . _ d 26 . . n
7 _ . . _ h 17 1 L L 27 . h
8 _ : : kh 18 1 L L z 28 w
9 . . d 19 . . 29 _ , _ y
10 . . dh 20 . . gh
C
Not romanized word-initially.
A
Not romanized, but see romanizations accompanying alif (i) in the table Ior vowels.
B
In certain endings, an original t (:) is written : , i.e., like h (.) with two dots, and is known
C
as t marbtah. It is romanized h, except in the construct Iorm oI Ieminine nouns, where it
is romanized t, instead.
Vowels, diphthongs and diacritical marks ( stands Ior any consonant)
1 - a 11 _- a 6 -
(A)
2 - aw 7 i- 12 - a
n
3 - ay 8 i 13 i
n
4 i 9 _ 14 - u
n
5 - u 10 - 15 -
(B)
Marks absence oI the vowel.
A
Marks doubling oI the consonant.
B
Note. When the deIinite article al precedes a word beginning with one oI the "sun letters" (t, th,
d, dh, r, :, s, sh, , d, , :, l, n) the l oI the deIinite article is assimilated with the Iirst consonant
oI the word: .t:i ash-Shriqah.
Minutes of the meeting Of the Arab Delegations in the Eighth United Nations Conference on the Standardi:ation
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of Geographical Names. Berlin 27 Aug. to 5 Sep. 2002. |Signed by Dr. Abdul Hadi Tazi, Chief of the Arab

Delegations. A copy was given to the Convenor of the UNGEGN Working Group on Romanization Systems.]
Presentation de la variante B du svsteme de translitteration de larabe "Bevrouth amende". UNGEGN, 17th
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Session. New York, 13-24 June 1994. WP No. 61.
Arabic Page 3
Other systems of romanization
The proposed changes (2002) to the UN system agreed to by the Arab delegations to the Eighth
UN ConIerence on the Standardization oI Geographical Names in Berlin (2002) envisage the
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Iollowing:
1. the character (1) to be romanized as dh instead oI :;
2. the cedilla () to be replaced by a sub-macron () in all characters with cedillas.
The BGN/PCGN 1956 System is identical to the UN system. The only diIIerence lies in the
treatment oI articles. The original transliteration table, published in vol. II oI the report on the
Second UN ConIerence on the Standardization oI Geographical Names, contains examples (but
not explicit rules) where the deIinite article is always written with a small initial and connected
by hyphen to the main part oI the name, e.g. ..,:i al-Barah, _t:i ar-Riyd. The practice oI
the BGN and the PCGN, however, is not to use hyphens between articles and names and to
capitalize the Iirst deIinite article in a name, e.g. Al Barah, Ar Riyd.
The I.G.N. System 1973 (sometimes also called Variant B oI the Amended Beirut System) has
the Iollowing equivalents to the romanizations oI the amended Beirut system :
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UN I.G.N.
a a, e, e, e j dj, j u ou, o
A
, n n, ne o,
A
a a q q, g , gu w ou
d s s, ss y i, , y
h
i i, e
A
,
A
A
B
A C
D
, z
E
sh ch ` (not romani:ed)
`, aa
A
A
E G
H
Used according to the local pronunciation.
A
ne is used word-Iinally aIter a, e, i, o.
B
gu is used beIore e and i.
C
ss is used between vowels.
D
is used in some conventional names.
E
is used as second element oI a diphthong.
E
v is used word-initially or between vowels.
G
aa is speciIic to Lebanon.
H
The transliteration ISO 233:1984 gives every character and diacritical mark a unique equivalent
and e.g. long vowels in Arabic , i and are consequently written a, iv and uw respectively in
the ISO transliteration. Other main correspondences:
UN ISO
( i ) a ay a a
n
Activities in Jordan on the Standardi:ation of Geographical Names. UNGEGN, 18th Session. Geneva, 12-23
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August 1996. WP. No. 86.
Rapport de lAlgerie. Huitieme Conference des Nations Unies sur la normalisation des noms geographiques. Berlin,
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27 aot 5 septembre 2002. E/CONE.94/INE.37.
Rapport sur la toponvmie, la normalisation et la romanisation des noms geographiques au Liban. Huitieme
7
Conference des Nations Unies sur la normalisation des noms geographiques. Berlin, 27 aot 5 septembre 2002.
E/CONE.94/INE.7.
Arabic Page 4
d j u u
dh
gh
h (:) t sh s
h
i i
n
kh y (_)


th
n
y (_) y
z
The Royal 1ordanian Geographic Centre (R1GC) System is essentially the same as the
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amended Beirut system. The sub-macron is used instead oI the cedilla.
UN RJGC
-ah (:) -a h
d s z h
The Survey of Egypt System (SES) oI romanization has the Iollowing correspondences with the
UN system:
UN SES
a a h th th (t)
(a)
-ah (:) -a z (d)
aw (au)
ay ei (ai)
d
dh dh (z)

j g (j)
q q (k)
s s (c)


The variants in parentheses are used depending on pronunciation and tradition. Not all the
variations have been given above. The article is always written el- (El-KaIr el-Qadm, Sharm el-
Sheikh).
In Algeria there is at present no oIIicial romanization system, the prospects oI establishing such
a system are being discussed in the Permanent Commission Ior Toponymy (CPST) at the
National Council oI Geographical InIormation (CNIG) . A system that is used in Lebanon, close
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to the I.G.N. 1973 System, is mentioned in ISO 3166-2:1998 (Codes Ior the representation oI
names oI countries and their subdivisions. Part 2: Country subdivision code): Principles for
romani:ation from Lebanese Arabic to Latin Characters (National Ministry oI DeIence oI the
Lebanese Republic 1963). However, in 2002 Lebanon submitted a document where all
geographical names were romanized using the UN system . In Mauritania, the romanized name
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Iorms in oIIicial maps edited since 1969 have been rendered in accordance with a simpliIied
Report of the Working Group on a Single Romanization System for Each Non-Roman Writing System: Activities

from 1 June 1972 to 16 August 1977. Third United Nations Conference on the Standardi:ation of Geographical
Names. Athens, 17 August - 7 September 1977. Vol. II. Technical papers, pp. 402-403.
Rapport national sur la toponvmie (Maroc). Huitieme Conference des Nations Unies sur la normalisation des noms

geographiques. Berlin, 27 aot 5 septembre 2002. E/CONE.94/INE.76.

Arabic Page 5
version oI the I.G.N. system . In Morocco the oIIicial romanization system Ior Arabic script

dates Irom June 17, 1932, although changes to this are being planned . In Tunisia the Directorate

oI Topography and Cartography adopted in 1983 oIIicially the amended Beirut system with
minor modiIications (e.g. adding a letter to the table).