Romanization of Armenian

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Categories: Armenian alphabet | Romanization | BGN/PCGN romanization | ALA/LC romanization | ISO standards

There are various systems of romanization of the Armenian alphabet.

Armenian	ա	բ	գ	դ	ե	զ	է	ը	թ	ժ	ի	լ	խ	ծ	կ	հ	ձ	ղ	ճ	մ	յ	ն	շ	ո	չ	պ	ջ	ռ	ս	վ	տ	ր	ց	ւ	փ	ք	օ	ֆ	ու	և
Hm-M	a	b	g	d	e	z	ê	ə	t῾	ž	i	l	x	c	k	h	j	ł	č	m	y	n	š	o	č῾	p	ǰ	r̄	s	v	t	r	c῾	w	p῾	k῾	ô	f	u	ev
ALA/LC	a	b	g	d	e, y	z	ě	ě	t‘	zh	i	l	kh	ts	k	h	dz	gh	ch	m	y, h	n	sh	o	ch‘	p	j	ṛ	s	v	t	r	ts‘	w	p‘	k‘	ǒ	f	u	ew
BGN/PCGN	a	b	g	d	e, ye	z	e	y	t’	zh	i	l	kh	ts	k	h	dz	gh	ch	m	y	n	sh	o, vo	ch’	p	j	rr	s	v	t	r	ts’	w	p’	k’	o	f	u	ev, yev
ISO	a	b	g	d	e	z	ē	ë	t’	ž	i	l	x	ç	k	h	j	ġ	č̣	m	y	n	š	o	č	p	ǰ	ṙ	s	v	t	r	c’	w	p’	k’	ò	f	ow	ew

In linguistic literature on Classical Armenian, the commonly used transliteration is that of Hübschmann-Meillet (1913).

BGN/PCGN romanization (1981) uses a right single quotation mark to express aspirates, t’, ch’, ts’, p’, k’, diverging from the original spiritus asper motivation. This was taken up by ISO (1996). This system is a loose transcription and is not reversible.

ALA-LC (1997) is largely compatible with BGN/PCGN, but returns to expressing aspirates with a left single quote.

ISO 9985 (1996) is the international standard for transliteration of the modern Armenian alphabet. Note that in this scheme, č (signifying չ) collides with the Hübschmann-Meillet transliteration (where it signifies ճ).