ISO 9

ISO 9 is an international standard establishing a system for the transliteration into Latin characters of Cyrillic characters constituting the alphabets of many Slavic and non-Slavic languages.^[1]

Published on February 23, 1995 by the International Organization for Standardization,^[2] the major advantage ISO 9 has over other competing systems is its univocal system of one character for one character equivalents (by the use of diacritics), which faithfully represents the original spelling and allows for reverse transliteration, even if the language is unknown.

Earlier versions of the standard, ISO/R 9:1954, ISO/R 9:1968 and ISO 9:1986, were more closely based on the international scholarly system for linguistics (scientific transliteration), but have diverged in favour of unambiguous transliteration over phonemic representation. The edition of 1995 supersedes the edition of 1986.^[1]

ISO 9:1995

The standard features three mapping tables: the first covers contemporary Slavic languages, the second older Slavic orthographies (excluding letters from the first), and the third non-Slavic languages (including most letters from the first). Several Cyrillic characters included in ISO 9 are not available as pre-composed characters in Unicode, nor are some of the transliterations; combining diacritical marks have to be used in these cases. Unicode, on the other hand, includes some historic characters that are not dealt with in ISO 9.

Transliteration table

The following combined table shows characters for various Slavic, Iranian, Romance, Turkic, Uralic, Mongolic, Caucasian, Tungusic, Paleosiberian and other languages of the former USSR which are written in Cyrillic.

ISO 9:1995

Cyrillic		Latin
Char		Char		Unicode		Description
А	а	A	a
Ӓ	ӓ	Ä	ä	00C4	00E4	a diaeresis
Ӓ̄	ӓ̄	Ạ̈	ạ̈	00C4+0323	00E4+0323	a diaeresis and dot below
Ӑ	ӑ	Ă	ă	0102	0103	a breve
А̄	а̄	Ā	ā	0100	0101	a macron
Ӕ	ӕ	Æ	æ	00C6	00E6	ae ligature
А́	а́	Á	á	00C1	00E1	a acute
А̊	а̊	Å	å	00C5	00E5	a ring
Б	б	B	b
В	в	V	v
Г	г	G	g
Ґ	ґ	G̀	g̀	0047+0300	0067+0300	g grave
Ѓ	ѓ	Ǵ	ǵ	01F4	01F5	g acute
Ғ	ғ	Ġ	ġ	0120	0121	g dot
Ҕ	ҕ	Ğ	ğ	011E	011F	g breve
Һ	һ	Ḥ	ḥ	1E24	1E25	h dot
Д	д	D	d
Ђ	ђ	Đ	đ	0110	0111	d stroke
Е	е	E	e
Ӗ	ӗ	Ĕ	ĕ	0114	0115	e breve
Ё	ё	Ë	ë	00CB	00EB	e diaeresis
Є	є	Ê	ê	00CA	00EA	e circumflex
Ж	ж	Ž	ž	017D	017E	z caron
Җ	җ	Ž̦	ž̦	017D+0326	017E+0326	z caron and comma below[3]
		Ž̧	ž̧	017D+0327	017E+0327	z caron and cedilla[3]
Ӝ	ӝ	Z̄	z̄	005A+0304	007A+0304	z macron
Ӂ	ӂ	Z̆	z̆	005A+0306	007A+0306	z breve
З	з	Z	z
Ӟ	ӟ	Z̈	z̈	005A+0308	007A+0308	z diaeresis
Ӡ	ӡ	Ź	ź	0179	017A	z acute
Ѕ	ѕ	Ẑ	ẑ	1E90	1E91	z circumflex
И	и	I	i
Ӣ	ӣ	Ī	ī	012A	012B	i macron
И́	и́	Í	í	00CD	00ED	i acute
Ӥ	ӥ	Î	î	00CE	00EE	i circumflex
Й	й	J	j
І	і	Ì	ì	00CC	00EC	i grave
Ї	ї	Ï	ï	00CF	00EF	i diaeresis
І̄	і̄	Ǐ	ǐ	01CF (012C)	01D0 (012D)	i caron (or breve)
Ј	ј	J̌	ǰ	004A+030C	01F0	j caron
Ј̵	ј̵	J́	j́	004A+0301	006A+0301	j acute
К	к	K	k
Ќ	ќ	Ḱ	ḱ	1E30	1E31	k acute
Ӄ	ӄ	Ḳ	ḳ	1E32	1E33	k dot below
Ҝ	ҝ	K̂	k̂	004B+0302	006B+0302	k circumflex
Ҡ	ҡ	Ǩ	ǩ	01E8	01E9	k caron
Ҟ	ҟ	K̄	k̄	004B+0304	006B+0304	k macron
Қ	қ	K̦	k̦	004B+0326	006B+0326	k comma below[3]
		Ķ	ķ	0136	0137	k cedilla[3]
К̨	к̨	K̀	k̀	004B+0300	006B+0300	k grave
Ԛ	ԛ	Q	q
Л	л	L	l
Љ	љ	L̂	l̂	004C+0302	006C+0302	l circumflex
Ԡ	ԡ	L̦	l̦	004C+0326	006C+0326	l comma below[3]
		Ļ	ļ	013B	013C	l cedilla[3]
М	м	M	m
Н	н	N	n
Њ	њ	N̂	n̂	004E+0302	006E+0302	n circumflex
Ң	ң	N̦	n̦	004E+0326	006E+0326	n comma below[3]
		Ņ	ņ	0145	0146	n cedilla[3]
Ӊ	ӊ	Ṇ	ṇ	1E46	1E47	n dot below
Ҥ	ҥ	Ṅ	ṅ	1E44	1E45	n dot
Ԋ	ԋ	Ǹ	ǹ	01F8	01F9	n grave
Ԣ	ԣ	Ń	ń	0143	0144	n acute
Ӈ	ӈ	Ň	ň	0147	0148	n caron
Н̄	н̄	N̄	n̄	004E+0304	006E+0304	n macron
О	о	O	o
Ӧ	ӧ	Ö	ö	00D6	00F6	o diaeresis
Ө	ө	Ô	ô	00D4	00F4	o circumflex
Ӫ	ӫ	Ő	ő	0150	0151	o double acute
Ӧ̄	о̄̈	Ọ̈	ọ̈	00D6+0323	00F6+0323	o diaeresis and dot below
Ҩ	ҩ	Ò	ò	00D2	00F2	o grave
О́	о́	Ó	ó	00D3	00F3	o acute
О̄	о̄	Ō	ō	014C	014D	o macron
Œ	œ	Œ	œ	0152	0153	oe ligature
П	п	P	p
Ҧ	ҧ	Ṕ	ṕ	1E54	1E55	p acute
Ԥ	ԥ	P̀	p̀	0050+0300	0070+0300	p grave
Р	р	R	r
С	с	S	s
Ҫ	ҫ	Ș	ș	0218	0219	s comma below[3]
		Ş	ş	015E	015F	s cedilla[3]
С̀	с̀	S̀	s̀	0053+0300	0073+0300	s grave
Т	т	T	t
Ћ	ћ	Ć	ć	0106	0107	c acute
Ԏ	ԏ	T̀	t̀	0054+0300	0074+0300	t grave
Т̌	т̌	Ť	ť	0164	0165	t caron
Ҭ	ҭ	Ț	ț	021A	021B	t comma below[3]
		Ţ	ţ	0162	0163	t cedilla[3]
У	у	U	u
Ӱ	ӱ	Ü	ü	00DC	00FC	u diaeresis
Ӯ	ӯ	Ū	ū	016A	016B	u macron
Ў	ў	Ŭ	ŭ	016C	016D	u breve
Ӳ	ӳ	Ű	ű	0170	0171	u double acute
У́	у́	Ú	ú	00DA	00FA	u acute
Ӱ̄	ӱ̄	Ụ̈	ụ̈	00DC+0323	00FC+0323	u diaeresis and dot below
		Ụ̄	ụ̄	016A+0323	016B+0323	u macron and dot below
Ү	ү	Ù	ù	00D9	00F9	u grave
Ұ	ұ	U̇	u̇	0055+0307	0075+0307	u dot
Ԝ	ԝ	W	w
Ф	ф	F	f
Х	х	H	h
Ҳ	ҳ	H̦	h̦	0048+0326	0068+0326	h comma below[3]
		Ḩ	ḩ	1E28	1E29	h cedilla[3]
Ц	ц	C	c
Ҵ	ҵ	C̄	c̄	0043+0304	0063+0304	c macron
Џ	џ	D̂	d̂	0044+0302	0064+0302	d circumflex
Ч	ч	Č	č	010C	010D	c caron
Ҷ	ҷ	C̦	c̦	0043+0326	0063+0326	c comma below[3]
		Ç	ç	00C7	00E7	c cedilla[3]
Ӌ	ӌ	C̣	c̣	0043+0323	0063+0323	c dot below
Ӵ	ӵ	C̈	c̈	0043+0308	0063+0308	c diaeresis
Ҹ	ҹ	Ĉ	ĉ	0108	0109	c circumflex
Ч̀	ч̀	C̀	c̀	0043+0300	0063+0300	c grave
Ҽ	ҽ	C̆	c̆	0043+0306	0063+0306	c breve
Ҿ	ҿ	C̨̆	c̨̆	0043+0328+0306	0063+0328+0306	c ogonek[3] and breve
Ш	ш	Š	š	0160	0161	s caron
Щ	щ	Ŝ	ŝ	015C	015D	s circumflex
Ъ	ъ	ʺ		02BA		modifier letter double prime[4]
Ы	ы	Y	y
Ӹ	ӹ	Ÿ	ÿ	0178	00FF	y diaeresis
Ы̄	ы̄	Ȳ	ȳ	0232	0233	y macron
Ь	ь	ʹ		02B9		modifier letter prime[4]
Э	э	È	è	00C8	00E8	e grave
Ә	ә	A̋	a̋	0041+030B	0061+030B	a double acute
Ӛ	ӛ	À	à	00C0	00E0	a grave
Ю	ю	Û	û	00DB	00FB	u circumflex
Ю̄	ю̄	Û̄	û̄	00DB+0304	00FB+0304	u circumflex and macron
Я	я	Â	â	00C2	00E2	a circumflex
Ѣ	ѣ	Ě	ě	011A	011B	e caron
Ѫ	ѫ	Ǎ	ǎ	01CD	01CE	a caron
Ѳ	ѳ	F̀	f̀	0046+0300	0066+0300	f grave
Ѵ	ѵ	Ỳ	ỳ	1EF2	1EF3	y grave
Ӏ		‡		2021		double dagger
ʼ		ʼ		02BC		modifier apostrophe
ˮ		ˮ		02EE		modifier double apostrophe

National adoptions

Date	Region	Name	Descriptive name
1995-06-01	France	NF ISO 9:1995-06-01 [5]	Information et documentation - Translittération des caractères cyrilliques en caractères latins - Langues slaves et non slaves.
1995-09-29	Sweden	SS-ISO 9 [6]	Translitterering av kyrilliska bokstäver till latinska - Slaviska och icke-slaviska språk
1997	Romania	SR ISO 9:1997 [7]	Informare şi documentare. Transliterarea caracterelor chirilice în caractere latine. Limbi slave şi neslave
1997-12-11	Croatia	HRN ISO 9:1997 [8]	Informacije i dokumentacija—Transliteracija ćiriličnih u latinične znakove za slavenske i neslavenske jezike (ISO 9:1995)
2000	Poland	PN-ISO 9:2000 [9]	Informacja i dokumentacja. Transliteracja znaków cyrylickich na znaki łacińskie — Języki słowiańskie i niesłowiańskie
2002	Lithuania	LST ISO 9:2002	Informacija ir dokumentai. Kirilicos rašmenų transliteravimas lotyniškais rašmenimis. Slavų ir ne slavų kalbos
2002-07-01	Russia	GOST 7.79-2000 System A	Система стандартов по информации, библиотечному и издательскому делу. Правила транслитерации кирилловского письма латинским алфавитом
2002-10	Czechia	ČSN ISO 9 (010185)[10]	Informace a dokumentace - Transliterace cyrilice do latinky - slovanské a neslovanské jazyky
2005-03-01	Italy	UNI ISO 9:2005[11]	Informazione e documentazione - Traslitterazione dei caratteri cirillici in caratteri latini - Linguaggi slavi e non slavi
2005-11-01	Slovenia	SIST ISO 9:2005[12]	Informatika in dokumentacija – Transliteracija ciriličnih znakov v latinične znake – Slovanski in neslovanski jeziki
2011	Estonia	EVS-ISO 9:2011[13]	Informatsioon ja dokumentatsioon. Kirillitsa translitereerimine ladina keelde. Slaavi ja mitte-slaavi keeled
2013	GCC: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates	GSO ISO 9:2013 [14]	التوثيق والمعلومات - الحروف السير يليه بترجمة إلى اللغة اللاتينية - السلافيه وغير اللغات السلافيه

Sample text

The following text is a fragment of the Preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Bulgarian:^[15]

Като взе предвид, че признаването на достойнството, присъщо на всички членове на човешкия род, на техните равни и неотменими права представлява основа на свободата, справедливостта и мира в света,

Kato vze predvid, če priznavaneto na dostojnstvoto, prisʺŝo na vsički členove na čoveškiâ rod, na tehnite ravni i neotmenimi prava predstavlâva osnova na svobodata, spravedlivostta i mira v sveta,

ISO/R 9

ISO Recommendation No. 9, published 1954 and revised 1968, is an older version of the standard, with different transliteration for different Slavic languages, reflecting their phonemic differences. It is closer to the original international system of Slavist scientific transliteration.

A German adaptation of this standard was published by the Deutsches Institut für Normung as DIN 1460 (1982) for Slavic languages and supplemented by DIN 1460-2 (2010) for non-Slavic languages.

The languages covered are Russian (RU), Belarusian (BE), Ukrainian (UK), Bulgarian (BG), Serbo-Croatian (SH) and Macedonian (MK). For comparison, ISO 9:1995 is shown in the table below.

Alternative schemes: ISO/R 9:1968 permits some deviations from the main standard. In the table below, they are listed in the columns alternative 1 and alternative 2.

1. The first sub-standard defines some language-dependent transliterations for Russian (RU), Ukrainian (UK), Belarusian (BE) and Bulgarian (BG).
2. The second sub-standard permits, in countries where tradition favours it, a set of alternative transliterations, but only as a group. It is identical to the British Standard 2979:1958 for Cyrillic romanization.^[16]

ISO/R 9:1954, ISO/R 9:1968 and ISO 9:1995

Cyrillic	ISO/R 9 1954	ISO/R 9 1968			ISO 9 1995	Usage per language
		base	alt. 1	alt. 2		RU	BE	UK	BG	SH	MK
А а	A a				A a	Yes
Б б	B b				B b	Yes
В в	V v				V v	Yes
Г г	G g	G g	H h (BE, UK)		G g	Yes	Regional		Yes
Ґ ґ	Ġ ġ				G̀ g̀	No		Yes	No
Д д	D d				D d	Yes
Ѓ ѓ	Ǵ ǵ				Ǵ ǵ	No					Yes
Ђ ђ	Đ đ				Đ đ	No				Yes	No
Е е	E e				E e	Yes
Ё ё	Ë ë				Ë ë	Yes		No
Є є	Je je				Ê ê	No		Yes	No
Ж ж	Ž ž			Zh zh	Ž ž	Yes
З з	Z z				Z z	Yes
Ѕ ѕ	Dz dz				Ẑ ẑ	No					Yes
И и	I i, Y y	I i	Y y (UK)		I i	Yes	No	Regional	Yes
I і	I i	Ī ī	I i (BE, UK)		Ì ì	Archaic	Yes		No
Ї ї	Ji ji	Ï ï			Ï ï	No		Yes	No
Й й	J j			Ĭ ĭ	J j	Yes				No
Ј ј	J j		Ĵ ĵ	Y y	J̌ ǰ	No				Yes
К к	K k				K k	Yes
Л л	L l				L l	Yes
Љ љ	Lj lj		Ĺ ĺ		L̂ l̂	No				Yes
М м	M m				M m	Yes
Н н	N n				N n	Yes
Њ њ	Nj nj		Ń ń		N̂ n̂	No				Yes
О о	O o				O o	Yes
П п	P p				P p	Yes
Р р	R r				R r	Yes
С с	S s				S s	Yes
Т т	T t				T t	Yes
Ќ ќ	Ḱ ḱ				Ḱ ḱ	No					Yes
Ћ ћ	Ć ć				Ć ć	No				Yes	No
У у	U u				U u	Yes
Ў ў	Ŭ ŭ				Ŭ ŭ	No	Yes	No
Ф ф	F f				F f	Yes
Х х	H h		Ch ch (BE, RU, UK)	Kh kh	H h	Regional			Yes
Ц ц	C c			Ts ts	C c	Yes
Ч ч	Č č			Ch ch	Č č	Yes
Џ џ	Dž dž		Dj dj	Dĵ dĵ	D̂ d̂	No				Yes
Ш ш	Š š			Sh sh	Š š	Yes
Щ щ	Šč šč, Št št	Šč šč	Št št (BG)	Shch shch	Ŝ ŝ	Yes	No	Yes	Regional	No
Ъ ъ	Ă ă, "	ʺ	Ă ă (BG)		ʺ	Yes[17]	Archaic[17]		Regional[18]	No
Ы ы	Y y				Y y	Yes		No
Ь ь	ʹ				ʹ	Yes				No
Ѣ ѣ	Ě ě				Ě ě	Archaic				No
Э э	E̊ e̊				È è	Yes		No
Ю ю	Ju ju			Yu yu	Û û	Yes				No
Я я	Ja ja			Ya ya	 â	Yes				No
’	", ’	″			’	Archaic	Yes		No		Regional
Ѫ ѫ	Ȧ ȧ	ʺ̣	Ȧ ȧ (BG)		Ǎ ǎ	No			Archaic[18]	No
Ѳ ѳ	Ḟ ḟ				F̀ f̀	Archaic	No
Ѵ ѵ	Ẏ ẏ				Ỳ ỳ	Archaic	No

See also

• Romanization of Russian
• List of ISO transliterations
• GOST standards

Notes

1. "ISO 9:1995: Information and documentation -- Transliteration of Cyrillic characters into Latin characters -- Slavic and non-Slavic languages". International Organization for Standardization. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
2. "ISO 9:1995". www.standard.no.
3. The "informative" Annex A of ISO 9:1995 uses ISO 5426 0x52 hook to left which can be mapped to Unicode's comma below U+0326 (while the ISO 5426 also has 0x50 cedilla which can be mapped to Unicode's cedilla U+0327), it also uses ISO 5426 0x53 hook to right which can be mapped to Unicode's ogonek U+0328. See for example Evertype.com's ISO 5426 Archived 2020-10-21 at the Wayback Machine mapping to Unicode or Joan M. Aliprand's Finalized Mapping between Characters of ISO 5426 and ISO/IEC 10646-1 Archived 2020-08-02 at the Wayback Machine.
4. Evertype.com: ISO 5426 mapping to Unicode Archived 2020-10-21 at the Wayback Machine; Joan M. Aliprand: Finalized Mapping between Characters of ISO 5426 and ISO/IEC 10646-1 Archived 2020-08-02 at the Wayback Machine; The Unicode Standard: Spacing Modifier Letters Archived 2019-06-13 at the Wayback Machine.
5. "DIN - German Institute for Standardization". Archived from the original on 3 February 2019. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
6. "Standard - Information and documentation - Transliteration of Cyrillic characters into Latin characters - Slavic and non-Slavic languages SS-ISO 9 - Swedish Institute for Standards, SIS".
7. "Magazin ASRO". magazin.asro.ro. Archived from the original on 13 February 2019.
8. "HRVATSKI NORMATIVNI DOKUMENT". Retrieved 21 December 2022.
9. "Sklep PKN". sklep.pkn.pl.
10. "ČSN ISO 9 (010185)". www.technicke-normy-csn.cz.
11. "Uni Iso 9:2005".
12. "Spletna trgovina SIST - SIST ISO 9:2005".
13. "EVS-ISO 9:2011". EVS.
14. "GSO ISO 9:2013 - متجر المواصفات - Ministry of Industry, Commerce & Tourism - Kingdom of Bahrain". Archived from the original on 21 December 2022. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
15. "OHCHR | Universal Declaration of Human Rights - Bulgarian (Balgarski)". OHCHR.
16. Hans H. Wellisch (1978), The Conversion of Scripts: Its Nature, History, and Utilization, New York City: Wiley, p. 262, Wikidata Q104231343
17. In Russian and Belarusian, ъ is not transliterated at the end of a word (where it occurred in the pre-1918 orthography).
18. In Bulgarian, ъ and ѫ are not transliterated at the end of a word (where it occurred in the pre-1945 orthography).

External links

• Transliteration of Non-Roman Scripts – A collection of writing systems and transliteration tables, by Thomas T. Pedersen. PDF reference charts include ISO 9.
• Transliteration of Russian into various European languages
• CyrAcademisator Bi-directional online transliteration of Russian for ALA-LC (diacritics), scientific, ISO/R 9, ISO 9, GOST 7.79B and others. Supports Old Slavonic characters
• Lingua::Translit Perl module covering a variety of writing systems. Transliteration according to several standards including ISO 9 and DIN 1460 for Cyrillic.
• (in German) IDS (Informationsverbund Deutschschweiz, 2001) Katalogisierungsregeln IDS (KIDS), Anhänge, "IDS G.4: Transliteration der slavischen kyrillischen Alphabete Archived 2017-03-01 at the Wayback Machine". Universität Zürich. URL accessed on 29-02-2012 (in German)—ISO/R 9 1968 standardization of scientific transliteration.
• RUS1.NET — 1:1 (univocal) transliteration map for learners of Russian, links to free auto-translit/IME tools for chrome/Firefox.