Streamlined System for the Romanization of Bulgarian

The Streamlined System is the official Bulgarian system for the Romanization of the Bulgarian language. It was developed at the Department of Mathematical Logic at the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences by L.L. Ivanov, [Andreev A., I. Derzhanski eds. "Bulgarian Academy of Sciences: Institute of Mathematics and Informatics, founded 1947." Sofia: Multiprint Ltd., 2007. 64 pp. (Bilingual publication in Bulgarian and English) ISBN 978-954-8986-27-4] and originally introduced by the Antarctic Place-names Commission of Bulgaria on March 2, 1995. [Origins of the 1995 Streamlined System: Unofficial use in a .] [L.L. Ivanov, [http://apc.mfa.government.bg/topo.htm "Toponymic Guidelines for Antarctica"] , Antarctic Place-names Commission of Bulgaria, Sofia, 1995.]

The new system became subject to comparative study at the Department of English and American Studies at Sofia University, [M. Gaidarska. The Current State of the Transliteration of Bulgarian Names into English in Popular Practice, Contrastive Linguistics, XXII, 1998, 112, pp. 69-84.] and was subsequently adopted by the Bulgarian Government (Ordinances #61 of 2 April 1999, #10 of 11 February 2000, #269 of 3 October 2006, and #3 of 26 October 2006) in identity documents, road signs, street names, official information systems, databases, local authorities’ websites etc.L.L. Ivanov, [http://members.lycos.co.uk/rre/Romanization.html On the Romanization of Bulgarian and English] , Contrastive Linguistics, XXVIII, 2003, 2, pp. 109-118.] [Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works, [http://bg.wikibooks.org/wiki/Наредба_№_3_за_транслитерация_на_българските_географски_имена_на_латиница Ordinance #3 of 26 October 2006 on the Transliteration of the Bulgarian Geographical Names in Latin Alphabet] , State Gazette # 94, 21 November 2006 (in Bulgarian)]

The system is based on an English-oriented transliteration, taking advantage of the global lingua franca role of English, with its wider comprehension facilitated by the fact that non-English speakers from many nations have their own languages and non-Roman writing systems Romanized by English-oriented transliteration or transcription too.

Diacritics are avoided, making it more user-friendly for the purposes of modern electronic communication (e-mail, instant messaging, short message service etc.), and obviating the need for additional conventions and explanation. In that respect the Streamlined System is dissimilar to the scientific transliteration of Bulgarian (1956 Bulgarian standard, or Andreychin System), with the latter using Ž•ž, Č•č, Š•š, ŠT•št and Ă•ă for Ж•ж, Ч•ч, Ш•ш, Щ•щ and Ъ•ъ respectively. (It should be noted however, that the Bulgarian state standard of scientific transliteration included also a diacritics-free version intended for telegraph and mail communications, with letters Ж•ж, Ч•ч, Ш•ш, Щ•щ and Ъ•ъ rendered exactly as in the Streamlined System.) Furthermore, the two systems differ in rendering the Cyrillic letters Й•й, Ц•ц, Ь•ь, Ю•ю, Я•я as Y•y, TS•ts, Y•y, YU•yu, YA•ya and J•j, C•c, J•j, JU•ju, JA•ja respectively.A. Danchev, M. Holman, E. Dimova, M. Savova, "An English Dictionary of Bulgarian Names: Spelling and Pronunciation", Nauka i Izkustvo Publishers, 1989, 288 pp.]

The essential difference between the Streamlined System and the closely related Danchev System is the case of the Cyrillic letters У•у and Ъ•ъ, rendered as U•u, A•a and OU•ou, U•u respectively.L.L. Ivanov, [http://members.lycos.co.uk/rre/Romanization.html On the Romanization of Bulgarian and English] , "Contrastive Linguistics," XXVIII (Sofia, 2003), 2, pp. 109-118.] A. Danchev, M. Holman, E. Dimova, M. Savova, "An English Dictionary of Bulgarian Names: Spelling and Pronunciation", Nauka i Izkustvo Publishers, 1989, 288 pp.]

The Streamlined System is similar also to the 1952 BGN/PCGN System for the Romanization of Bulgarian, still official in the USA and the United Kingdom. The latter however transliterates the Cyrillic letters Х•х, Ь•ь and Ъ•ъ as KH•kh, ’ (apostrophe) and Ŭ•ŭ, while the former uses H•h, Y•y and A•a instead. L.L. Ivanov, [http://members.lycos.co.uk/rre/Romanization.html On the Romanization of Bulgarian and English] , "Contrastive Linguistics," XXVIII, 2003, 2, pp. 109-118.] [USBGN, [http://gort.ucsd.edu/edocs/fed/USBGN_romanization.pdf "Romanization Systems and Roman-Script Spelling Conventions"] , 1994, pp.17-18.]

The streamlined approach is applied also in the Romanization of other Cyrillic alphabets such as Russian, [L.L. Ivanov, [http://members.lycos.co.uk/rre/Russian.html Romanization of Russian: The 2006 Streamlined System] ] as well as in the re-Romanization and pronunciation respelling of English. [L. Ivanov, V. Yule, [http://members.lycos.co.uk/rre/RPA-Paper-2007.html Roman Phonetic Alphabet for English] , Contrastive Linguistics, XXXII, 2007, 2, pp. 50-64.]

ee also

* Romanization of Bulgarian
* Romanization
* Cyrillic alphabet
* Latin alphabet
* Basic Roman spelling of English
* Roman Phonetic Alphabet for English

Notes