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Transliterating Ukrainian Letters into English.

In the discourse of Western academic institutions only two standard systems for transliterating Ukrainian Cyrillic into English are accepted. 

The first, known as the International System (IS) or the International Academic System, is preferred by linguists and philologists in general.  This system uses the letter J to render the Cyrillic Р™, and the letter X to render the Cyrillic X, which represents a sound that does not exist in the English language.   The IS also places a  hachek ( МЊ),  i.e., special diacritic mark over the Latin letters Z, C, and S to render the Cyrillic Р– ( Еѕ), Р§ (ДЌ ), РЁ ( š), and  Р© (šДЌ).   The hachek is available on your computer under Characters.  It is also available for e-mail if you use its HTML version.

The second, known as the Library of Congress (LC) System, is preferred by libraries. This system uses the letter I to render the Cyrillic Р™, and the combination Kh to render the Cyrillic X.  Instead of using the hachek, it adds the Latin letter H to the letters Z, C, and S to render the Cyrillic Р– ( Zh), Р§ (Ch ), РЁ (Sh), and  Р© (Shch).   The LC system is easier to use, because it does not require special Characters. But it can be confusing to the uninitiated who, for example, may not know when the combination ZH stands for  Р– (жаба) or Р—Р“ (згоден).  

Romanization tables for various languages, including Ukrainian, prepared by the Library of Congress (Washington, DC) are available here.  

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Within our courses in the Ukrainian Culture, Language and Literature Program, students are required to use either the International Standard or the Library of Congress System.  The following chart compares and contrasts the transliteration of the Ukrainian and Russian alphabets, according to both the IS and the LC systems.

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When writing for the press or other non-academic venues, we recommend the following Romanization table, which reflects the practice within North America.  Please bear in mind that in Great Britain, other Commonwealth countries, and European countries whose languages use the Latin alphabet, other systems for Romanizing Ukrainian are in place. Read about here.

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