REPORT ON THE CURRENT STATUS OF
UNITED NATIONS ROMANIZATION SYSTEMS FOR GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES
Compiled by the UNGEGN Working Group on Romanization Systems
Version 2.2, January 2003

Armenian

No romanization systems for Armenian have been put forward at the United Nations conferences on the standardization of geographical names or at sessions of the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names. No information has been received on whether there exist any national systems of romanization in Armenia.

Systems of romanization

The BGN/PCGN 1981 System gives the following romanization:

1 Ա ա a
2 Բ բ b
3 Գ գ g
4 Դ դ d
5 Ե ե e, yeA
6 Զ զ z
7 Է է e
8 Ը ը y
9 Թ թ t’
10 Ժ ժ zh
11 Ի ի i
12 Լ լ l
13 Խ խ kh
14 Ծ ծ ts
15 Կ կ k
16 Հ հ h
17 Ձ ձ dz
18 Ղ ղ gh
19 Ճ ճ ch
20 Մ մ m
21 Յ յ y
22 Ն ն n
23 Շ շ sh
24 Ո ո o, voB
25 Չ չ ch’
26 Պ պ p
27 Ջ ջ j
28 Ռ ռ rr
29 Ս ս s
30 Վ վ v
31 Տ տ t
32 Ր ր r
33 Ց ց ts’
34 Ու ու u
35 Փ փ p’
36 Ք ք k’
37 ԵՒ և ev, yevC
38 Օ օ o
39 Ֆ ֆ f

Note. In newer sources the character 37 is used in the lower case form only; in the upper case it is written as a combination of characters 5 and 30 (ԵՎ), cf.ԵՐԵՎԱՆ YEREVAN, Երևան Yerevan. Also there is some indication that in 1997 the alphabet was modified so that the character Ւ ւ w was restored as an independent character. According to the same source the end of the alphabet would read as follows (starting from the point of difference with the above table):

34 Ւ ւ w
35 Փ փ p’
36 Ք ք k’
37 և ev/yev
38 Օ օ o
39 Ֆ ֆ f
40 Ու ու u

The transliteration standard ISO 9985:1996 gives, as a single block, different Roman equivalents to the following Armenian letters (the BGN/PCGN equivalents are in parentheses):

ե (e/ye) e
է (e) ē
ը (y) ë
ժ (zh) ž
խ (kh) x
ծ (ts) ç
ձ (dz) j
ղ (gh) ġ
ճ (ch) č̣
շ (sh) š
ո (o/vo) o
չ (ch’) č
ջ (j) ǰ
ռ (rr)
ց (ts’) c’
ու (u) ow
օ (o) ò