The romanization of Russian is writing Russian using Latin-script letters instead of its usual Cyrillic-script letters.

Transliteration table

 Below is a table featuring four ways to romanize Russian.

  • On the far left is the original Russian letters.
  • The first romanization is the International Phonetic Alphabet, a way to write pronunciation of the letters as said by people; it does not account for irregular spellings, pronunciation only.
  • The second romanization is the scientific romanization, and it is used in scientific contexts.
  • The third romanization is Wikipedia’s romanization; this is the one most commonly used in the English Wikipedia and the Simple English Wikipedia.
  • The fourth and final romanization is the official romanization system used for Russian passports; officially, it is called the ICAO system.[a]
Original Cyrillic[2] I.P.A. Scientific romanization[3] Wikipedia’s romanization[4] Passport / ICAO
А а [a] a a a
Б б [b] or [bʲ] b b b
В в [v] or [vʲ] v v v
Г г [ɡ] or [gʲ] g g g
Д д [d] or [dʲ] d d d
Е е [je] or [ʲe] or [e] e e / ye e
Ё ё [jo] or [ʲo] ë yo e
Ж ж [ʐ] ž zh zh
З з [z] or [zʲ] z z z
И и [i] or [ʲi] or [ɨ] i i i
Й й [j] j y i
К к [k] or [kʲ] k k k
Л л [ɫ] or [lʲ] l l l
М м [m] or [mʲ] m m m
Н н [n] or [nʲ] n n n
О о [o] o o o
П п [p] or [pʲ] p p p
Р р [r] or [rʲ] r r r
С с [s] or [sʲ] s s s
Т т [t] or [tʲ] t t t
У у [u] u u u
Ф ф [f] or [fʲ] f f f
Х х [x] or [xʲ] x / ch / h kh kh
Ц ц [t͡s] c ts ts
Ч ч [t͡ɕ] č ch ch
Ш ш [ʂ] š sh sh
Щ щ [ɕː] or [ɕ] šč / ŝ shch / sch shch
Ъ ъ none[b] ” (omitted) ie[c]
Ы ы [ɨ] y y y
Ь ь [◌ʲ] ’ y[d] ⠀[e]
Э э [ɛ] or [e] è e e
Ю ю [ju] or [ʲu] ju / û yu iu
Я я [ja] or [ʲa] ja / â ya ia

Archaic letters

These are some of Russian’s archaic letters,[f] and their romanization.

Letter І і Ѣ ѣ Ѳ ѳ Ѵ ѵ
Pronunciation (I.P.A.) [i] or [ʲi] [je] or [ʲe] [f] or [fʲ] [i] (or [v])
Romanization i ě f i

Yus letters

The yus letters, or jus letters, are former Cyrillic letters. Below is their romanizations.[6]

Letter Ѫ ѫ Ѭ ѭ Ѧ ѧ Ѩ ѩ
Romanization ǫ / õ jǫ / jõ ę / ẽ ję / jẽ
Name / Pronunciation [g] [h] [i] [j]

Sample text

Novaya Zemlya

English

Novaya Zemlya is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean between the Barents and Kara seas, and is part of the Arkhangelsk Oblast of Russia as the Novaya Zemlya administrative district and, within the framework of local self-government, has the status of the Novaya Zemlya urban district.

Russian (Cyrillic)

Новая Земля — архипелаг в Северном Ледовитом океане между Баренцевым и Карским морями, входит в Архангельскую область России в качестве административного района Новая Земля и, в рамках местного самоуправления, в статусе городского округа Новая Земля.

Scientific romanization

Novaâ Zemlâ — arhipelag v Severnom Ledovitom okeane meždu Barencevym i Karskim morâmi, vhodit v Arhangel’skuû oblast’ Rossii v kačestve administrativnogo pajona Novaâ Zemlâ i, v ramkah mestnogo camoupravleniâ, v statuse gorodskogo okruga Novaâ Zemlâ.

Wikipedia’s romanization

Novaya Zemlya — arkhipelag v Severnom Ledovitom okeane mezhdu Barentsevym i Karskim moryami, vkhodit v Arhangelskuyu oblast Rossii v kachestve administrativnogo pajona Novaya Zemlya i, v ramkakh mestnogo camoupravleniya, v statuse gorodskogo okruga Novaya Zemlya.

Passport / ICAO

Novaya Zemlya — arkhipelag v Severnom Ledovitom okeane mezhdu Barentsevym i Karskim moryami, vkhodit v Arhangelskuyu oblast Rossii v kachestve administrativnogo pajona Novaya Zemlya i, v ramkakh mestnogo camoupravleniya, v statuse gorodskogo okruga Novaya Zemlya.

Notes

  1. ↑ That romanization system was made official in 2013 when Order № 320 was passed.[1]
  2. ↑ This letter, Ъ ъ, is intentionally never pronounced because it is used to avoid palatalization, which is the making the consonant before it more y-like.
  3. ↑ ICAO probably used ‘ie’ as the romanization of Ъ due to Bulgarian, but the Federal Migration Service of Russia still uses it as the official romanization for passports.
  4. ↑ When using Wikipedia’s romanization, the romanization for this letter, Ь ь, is omitted when it is followed by one of four vowels (е, ё, ю, я), when at the end of a word, or when followed by a consonant. When followed by one of the other vowels (а, и, о, у, ы, э), it is romanized as the letter y.
  5. ↑ Ь is not written in the passport romanization.
  6. ↑ Those letters were used historically, but they’re not used anymore.[5]
  7. ↑ Big Yus; pronounced as [ɛ̃]
  8. ↑ Iotated Big Yus; pronounced as [jɛ̃] or [ʲɛ̃]
  9. ↑ Little Yus; pronounced as [ɔ̃]
  10. ↑ Iotated Little Yus; pronounced as [jɔ̃] or [ʲɔ̃]

References

  1. ↑ Federal Migratory Service (27 March 2013). "Order No. 320 (15 October 2012)" (in Russian). No. 6041. Rossiyskaya Gazeta. Archived from the original on 12 March 2017. Retrieved 9 March 2017.
  2. ↑ List of letters in the Russian alphabet, Simple English Wikipedia
  3. ↑ Scientific transliteration of Cyrillic, English-language Wikipedia
  4. ↑ Romanization of Russian, English-language Wikipedia
  5. ↑ Post-revolution reform of the Russian orthography, English-language Wikipedia
  6. ↑ Early Cyrillic alphabet, English-language Wikipedia
source: http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanization_of_Russian