Romanization of Georgian
 | It has been suggested that Georgian national system of romanization be merged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since August 2012. |
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There are several systems of romanization of the Georgian alphabet. One is the Georgian national system of romanization and another is ISO 9984. Neither system is used for writing Georgian, but there is another simple, unofficial system which does not use apostrophes or diacritics like those, but instead only plain ASCII (English) letters, though upper and lower case may represent separate sounds unlike in English.
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 Academy of Sciences, establishes a transliteration system of the modern Georgian alphabet in Latin characters.[1] The system had already been in use since 1998 on driving licenses.
ISO 9984
The international standard ISO 9984 establishes a system for the transliteration into Latin characters of modern Georgian characters.
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 alphabet keyboard layout (see Georgian keyboard) 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).
Ttransliteration table
| Georgian letter | IPA | National system (2002) |
BGN/PCGN (1981) |
ISO 9984 (1996) |
ALA-LC (1997) |
Unofficial system |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ა | /ɑ/ | a | a | a | a | a |
| ბ | /b/ | b | b | b | b | b |
| გ | /g/ | g | g | g | g | g |
| დ | /d/ | d | d | d | d | d |
| ე | /ɛ/ | e | e | e | e | e |
| ვ | /v/ | v | v | v | v | v |
| ზ | /z/ | z | z | z | z | z |
| ჱ[2] | /eɪ/ | ey | ē | ē | ||
| თ | /tʰ/ | t | t' | t' | t' | T[3] or t |
| ი | /i/ | i | i | i | i | i |
| კ | /kʼ/ | k' | k | k | k | k |
| ლ | /l/ | l | l | l | l | l |
| მ | /m/ | m | m | m | m | m |
| ნ | /n/ | n | n | n | n | n |
| ჲ[2] | /i/, /j/ | j | y | y | ||
| ო | /ɔ/ | o | o | o | o | o |
| პ | /pʼ/ | p' | p | p | p | p |
| ჟ | /ʒ/ | zh | zh | ž | ž | J[3] or j |
| რ | /r/ | r | r | r | r | r |
| ს | /s/ | s | s | s | s | s |
| ტ | /tʼ/ | t' | t | t | t | t |
| ჳ[2] | /uɪ/ | w | w | |||
| უ | /u/ | u | u | u | u | u |
| ფ | /pʰ/ | p | p' | p' | p' | p or f |
| ქ | /kʰ/ | k | k' | k' | k' | q or k |
| ღ | /ɣ/ | gh | gh | ḡ | ġ | g or R[3] |
| ყ | /qʼ/ | q' | q | q | q | y[4] |
| შ | /ʃ/ | sh | sh | š | š | sh or S[3] |
| ჩ | /tʃ/ | ch | ch' | č' | č' | ch or C[3] |
| ც | /ts/ | ts | ts' | c' | c' | c or ts |
| ძ | /dz/ | dz | dz | j | ż | dz or Z[3] |
| წ | /tsʼ/ | ts' | ts | c | c | w, c or ts |
| ჭ | /tʃʼ/ | ch' | ch | č | č | W[3] or ch |
| ხ | /x/ | kh | kh | x | x | x or kh (rarely) |
| ჴ[2] | /q/, /qʰ/ | q' | ẖ | x̣ | ||
| ჯ | /dʒ/ | j | j | ǰ | j | j |
| ჰ | /h/ | h | h | h | h | h |
| ჵ[2] | /oː/ | ō | ō | |||
| ჶ[2] | /f/ | f | f | |||
| ჷ[2] | ĕ | |||||
| ჸ[2] | ' |
Notes and references
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Archaic letters.
- ^ a b c d e f g These are influenced by aforementioned layout, and are preferred to avoid ambiguity, as an expressions: t, j, g, ch can mean two letters).
- ^ Initially, the use of y letter for ყ is most probably due to their resemblance to each other.