# Romanization of Belarusian

Romanization or Latinization of Belarusian is any system for transliterating written Belarusian from Cyrillic to the Latin alphabet.

## Standard systems for romanizing Belarusian

Standard systems for romanizing Belarusian include:
* BGN/PCGN romanization of Belarusian, 1979 (United States Board on Geographic Names and Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use), which is the US and Great Britain prevailing system for romanising of geographical information
* British Standard 2979 : 1958
* Scientific transliteration, or the International Scholarly System for linguistics
* ALA-LC romanization, 1997 (American Library Association and Library of Congress)
* ISO 9:1995, which is also Belarusian state standard GOST 7.79–2000 for non-geographical information
* Instruction on transliteration of Belarusian geographical names with letters of Latin script, which was an official standard for geographical names, adopted by the Committee on Land Resources, Geodesy and Cartography of Belarus (2000), and recommended for use by the Working Group on Romanization Systems of the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN). It was significantly revised in 2007, then replaced with a new system in 2023.
Comparative table of some standard romanisations of the Belarusian letters :
| Cyrillic | Scholarly | ALA-LC | British | BGN/PCGN | ISO 9 | National 2000 | National 2007 | National 2023 |
| А а | a | a | a | a | a | a | a | a |
| Б б | b | b | b | b | b | b | b | b |
| В в | v | v | v | v | v | v | v | v |
| Г г | h | h | h | h | g | h | h | g |
| Ґ ґ | g | g | g | g | g̀ | | | |
| Д д | d | d | d | d | d | d | d | d |
| Е е | e | e | e | ye | e | je, ie | je, ie | je, ie |
| Ё ё | ë | i͡o | ë | yo | ë | jo, io | jo, io | jo, io |
| Ж ж | ž | z͡h | zh | zh | ž | ž | ž | zh |
| З з | z | z | z | z | z | z | z | z |
| І і | i | i | i | i | ì | i | i | i |
| Й й | j | ĭ | ĭ | y | j | j | j | j |
| К к | k | k | k | k | k | k | k | k |
| Л л | l | l | l | l | l | l | l | l |
| М м | m | m | m | m | m | m | m | m |
| Н н | n | n | n | n | n | n | n | n |
| О о | o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o |
| П п | p | p | p | p | p | p | p | p |
| Р р | r | r | r | r | r | r | r | r |
| С с | s | s | s | s | s | s | s | s |
| Т т | t | t | t | t | t | t | t | t |
| Тс тс | | | t-s | t·s | | | | |
| У у | u | u | u | u | u | u | u | u |
| Ў ў | ŭ (w) | ŭ | w | w | ǔ | ú | ŭ | w |
| Ф ф | f | f | f | f | f | f | f | f |
| Х х | x (ch) | kh | kh | kh | h | ch | ch | h |
| Ц ц | c | ts | ts | ts | c | c | c | c |
| Ч ч | č | ch | ch | ch | č | č | č | ch |
| Ш ш | š | sh | sh | sh | š | š | š | sh |
| ʼ | - | - | ˮ, " | ʺ | ʼ | - | - | - |
| Ы ы | y | y | ȳ | y | y | y | y | y |
| Ь ь | ʹ | ʹ | ʼ, ' | ʹ | ʹ | ʹ | combining acute | - |
| Э э | è | ė | é | e | è | e | e | e |
| Ю ю | ju | i͡u | yu | yu | û | ju, iu | ju, iu | ju, iu |
| Я я | ja | i͡a | ya | ya | â | ja, ia | ja, ia | ja, ia |
| Historical letters |||||||||
| И и | | ī | | | | | | |
| Щ щ | | shch | | | | | | |
| Ъ ъ | | ʺ | ˮ, " | | | | | |
| Ѣ ѣ | | ě | ê | | | | | |
| ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-08-24. Retrieved 2009-07-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) ↑ "Instrukcija po peredache naimenovanij geograficheskih objektov s belorusskogo i russkogo jazykov na drugie jazyki i transliteracii naimenovanij geograficheskih objektov bukvami latinskogo alfavita". Gosudarstvennyj komitet po imushchestvu Respubliki Belarus. 2023. Retrieved 13 August 2024. ↑ "Писать "Ščučynščyna" уже нельзя: в Беларуси отменили белорусскую латиницу в географических названиях". Hrodna.life - новости Гродно (in Russian). 4 April 2023. ↑ Parentheses ( ) denote older variants. ↑ Diacritics may be omitted when back-transliteration is not required ↑ "Romanization Systems Currently Approved by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names (BGN) and the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use (PCGN)". National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. Retrieved 5 April 2017. 1 2 3 For е, ё, ю, я, the digraphs je, jo, ju, ja are used word-initially, and after a vowel, apostrophe (’), separating ь, or ў. ↑ The letter Ge (Ґ ґ) has never been part of the standard Belarusian alphabet. |||||||||

## Examples

Transliteration of some common words :
| Cyrillic | Беларусь | Лукашэнка | Магілёў | сям’я |
| Łacinka | Biełaruś | Łukašenka | Mahiloŭ | siamja |
| BGN/PCGN | Byelarus′ | Lukashenka | Mahilyow | syamʹʹya |
| Scholarly | Belarus′ | Lukašènka | Mahilëŭ | sjamja |
| ALA-LC | Belarusʹ | Lukashėnka | Mahili͡oŭ | si͡ami͡a |
| British | Belarus’ | Lukashénka | Mahilëw | syam”ya |
| ISO 9 | Belarus′ | Lukašènka | Magìlëǔ | sâm’â |
| National 2000 | Bielarus’ | Lukašenka | Mahilioú | siamja |
| National 2007 | Bielaruś | Lukašenka | Mahilioŭ | siamja |
| National 2023 | Bielarus | Lukashenka | Magiliow | siamja |