Romanization of Ukrainian
Romanization or Latinization of Ukrainian is how to write the Ukrainian language in Latin letters. Latin letters are the type that are currently used for this article.
This makes the language easier for non-Ukrainian people to read and pronounce.
There are two different kinds of Romanization. These methods are transliteration, representing written text, and transcription, representing the spoken words.
Transliteration
Transliteration is the letter-for-letter representation of text using a Latin writing system.
The International scholarly system, also called scientific transliteration, is most often seen in linguistic publications about Slavic languages. Each character represents one phoneme, one meaningful unit of sound. This is based on the Croatian Latin alphabet.
Transcription
Transcription is the representation of the spoken word. Phonetic transcription represents every single sound, or phone, and can be used to compare different dialects of a language. It is more specifed as the Transliteration.
Table of latinization Ukrainian letters
| Cyrillic | Scholarly | Nationala | French | German | Alternative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| А а | a | a | a | a | a |
| Б б | b | b | b | b | b |
| В в | v | v | v | w | v (Before vowels), w (Before Consonants) |
| Г г | h | h, ghb | h | h | q |
| Ґ ґ | g | g | g | g | g |
| Д д | d | d | d | d | d |
| Е е | e | e | e | e | e |
| Є є | je | ie, yec | ie | je | je |
| Ж ж | ž | zh | j | sh | zh |
| З з | z | z | z | s | z |
| И и | y | y | y | y | y |
| І і | i | i | i | i | i |
| Ї ї | ji | i, yic | ï, yi | ji | ji |
| Й й | j | i, yc | i | j | j |
| К к | k | k | k | k | k |
| Л л | l | l | l | l | l |
| М м | m | m | m | m | m |
| Н н | n | n | n | n | n |
| О о | o | o | o | o | o |
| П п | p | p | p | p | p |
| Р р | r | r | r | r | r |
| С с | s | s | s | s, ss | s |
| Т т | t | t | t | t | t |
| У у | u | u | ou | u | u |
| Ф ф | f | f | f | f | f |
| Х х | x or ch | kh | kh | ch | x |
| Ц ц | c | ts | ts | z | c |
| Ч ч | č | ch | tch | tsch | ch |
| Ш ш | š | sh | ch | sch | sh |
| Щ щ | šč | sch | chtch | schtsch | sch |
| Ю ю | ju | iu, yuc | iou | ju | ju |
| Я я | ja | ia, yac | ia | ja | ja |
| Ь ь | ′ | ’ | – | – | j |
| ’ | - | ” | – | – | h |
- a Notes for the Ukrainian National system
- Transliteration can be rendered in a simplified form:
- Doubled consonants ж, х, ц, ч, ш are simplified, for example Запоріжжя→Zaporizhia.
- Apostrophe and soft sign are omitted, except for ьо and ьї which are always rendered as ’o and ’i.
b. gh is used in the romanization of зг (zgh), avoiding confusion with ж (zh).
c. The second variant is used at the beginning of a word.
Romanization Of Ukrainian Media
Part of a table of letters of the alphabet for the Ruthenian language, from Ivan Uzhevych's Hrammatyka Slovenskaja (1645). Columns show the letter names printed, in manuscript Cyrillic and Latin, common Cyrillic letterforms, and the Latin transliteration. (Part 2 and part 3.)
Czech transliteration of Ukrainian (Peremyčka, Jasiňa, U Stěpana) in Transcarpathia on the hiking fingerposts installed in 2010. However, the transliteration is not fully consistent – "Ust Corna" instead of "Usť Čorna", "Bliznica" instead of "Blyznycja" etc.
