Romanization of Bulgarian
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Romanization of Bulgarian is the transliteration of text in the Bulgarian language from the Cyrillic alphabet into the Latin alphabet. This table lists several transliteration schemes:
| Cyrillic | ALA/LC | BGN/PCGN | ISO 9 | United Nations | Danchev system | Official Bulgarian |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| а | a | a | a | a | a | a |
| б | b | b | b | b | b | b |
| в | v | v | v | v | v | v |
| г | g | g | g | g | g | g |
| д | d | d | d | d | d | d |
| е | e | e | e | e | e | e |
| ж | zh | zh | ž | ž | zh | zh |
| з | z | z | z | z | z | z |
| и | i | i | i | i | i | i |
| й | ĭ | y | j | j | y | y |
| к | k | k | k | k | k | k |
| л | l | l | l | l | l | l |
| м | m | m | m | m | m | m |
| н | n | n | n | n | n | n |
| о | o | o | o | o | o | o |
| п | p | p | p | p | p | p |
| р | r | r | r | r | r | r |
| с | s | s | s | s | s | s |
| т | t | t | t | t | t | t |
| у | u | u | u | u | ou | u |
| ф | f | f | f | f | f | f |
| х | kh | kh | h | h | h | h |
| ц | t͡s | ts | c | c | ts | ts |
| ч | ch | ch | č | č | ch | ch |
| ш | sh | sh | š | š | sh | sh |
| щ | sht | sht | ŝ | št | sht | sht |
| ъ | ŭ | ŭ | ″ | ǎ | u | a |
| ь | – | ’ | ′ | j | y | y |
| ю | i͡u | yu | û | ju | yu | yu |
| я | i͡a | ya | â | ja | ya | ya |
| ѣ | i͡e | e, ya | ě | |||
| ѫ | u̐ | ŭ | ǎ |
The last two letters are found only in older texts, before 1945.
Romanization issues
The romanization of Bulgarian Cyrillic can be done using several systems, with none being by far the most dominant and recognizable, and each having disadvantages. Some more complex Bulgarian names could be transliterated in up to ten ways, whether using standartized systems or not. For example, the village of Gyueshevo could also be met as Gjueševo and even Güeshevo on direction signs. Particularly troublesome are the letters "ц" (that could be either "c", "ts" or "tz") and the schwa "ъ" (whether "a" or "u" or the more accurate diacritic "ă", "â" or "ŭ").In 2006, a governmental campaign by the Ministry of State Administration and Administrative Reform approved a transliteration system to be made official for toponyms (but not personal names). A [30,000-entry online database of placenames and personal names] was created to popularize the system and unify the transliteration of Bulgarian. The [2006 system] is the old [2000 system] approved by the Government for transliterating both personal names and toponyms in the Bulgarian ID cards and passports, which had been originally introduced by L.L. Ivanov and first approved as the official [1995 system] for the transliteration of Bulgarian toponyms in Antarctica.
The system has, however, certain flaws, the most obvious one being the use of "a" for both Cyrillic "a" (/a/) and "ъ" (/ɤ/) that could lead to confusions and makes the original Cyrillic word difficult to recognize for non-native speakers. Another disadvantage can be seen in the use of two letters, "zh" and "sh" for "ж" and "ш". For example, a person with no or little knowledge of Bulgarian may not know that a transliterated "izhod" is actually "изход" (that is, it has /zx/, and not /ʒ/) by only looking at the transliteration. The same applies for words that have "сх" (/sx/), such as "схема" ("shema"; pronounced with /sx/ at the beginning, not /ʃ/).
The new-old system has found supporters among those who find the pronunciation of diacritics to be largely unknown in the English-speaking world and thus confusing. On the other hand, many people feel that Bulgarian, as a South Slavic language, should employ a system that is close to or the same as the ones used by the other languages in the group—Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian and to the greatest extent Macedonian as the most closely related language—that use Latin scripts or transliteration systems employing a number of diacritic signs.
Romanization sample
Differences in the romanization of the letters "ч", "ж", "я" and "ъ" are underlined.
| Bulgarian Cyrillic | United Nations | Official transliteration | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| Всички хора се раждат свободни и равни по достойнство и права. Tе са надарени с разум и съвест и следва да се отнасят помежду си в дух на братство.
| Vsički hora se raždat svobodni i ravni po dostojnstvo i prava. Te sa nadareni s razum i sǎvest i sledva da se otnasjat pomeždu si v duh na bratstvo. | Vsichki hora se razhdat svobodni i ravni po dostoynstvo i prava. Te sa nadareni s razum i savest i sledva da se otnasyat pomezhdu si v duh na bratstvo. | All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. |
See also
References
- [Transliteration of Non-Roman Scripts], a collection of writing systems and transliteration tables, by Thomas T. Pederson. Includes PDF reference charts for many languages’ transliteration systems. [Bulgarian.pdf] (PDF file)
- The [Working Group on Romanization Systems] of the United Nations.
- A. Danchev, M. Holman, E. Dimova, M. Savova, An English Dictionary of Bulgarian Names: Spelling and Pronunciation, Nauka i Izkustvo Publishers (Sofia, 1989), 288 pp.
- [Transliteration table] of the Bulgarian Ministry of Interior.
- The [Official Bulgarian] transliteration scheme as originally proposed by L.L. Ivanov and introduced by the Antarctic Place-names Commission of Bulgaria on 2 March 1995, and subsequently promulgated for wider usage by the Bulgarian Government Ordinances #61 of 2 April 1999 and #10 of 11 February 2000.
- [L.L. Ivanov, On the Romanization of Bulgarian and English, Contrastive Linguistics, XXVIII (Sofia, 2003), 2, 109-118.]
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