BGN/PCGN romanization of Kazakh
Introduction '''BGN/PCGN romanization system for Kazakh''' is a method for romanization of Cyrillic Kazakh texts, that is, their transliteration into the Latin alphabet as used in the English language.The BGN/PCGN system for transcribing Kazakh was designed to be relatively intuitive for anglophones to pronounce. It is part of the larger set of BGN/PCGN romanizations, which includes methods for twenty-nine different languages. It was developed by the United States Board on Geographic Names and by the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use.This romanization of Kazakh can be rendered using the basic letters and punctuation found on English-language keyboards plus three diacritical marks: an umlaut (¨) to represent front vowels not otherwise represented by a roman character, a macron (ˉ) to represent "long vowels", and an overdot (˙) to differentiate between two ⟨e⟩s. The interpunct character (·) can also optionally be used to avoid certain ambiguity presented by the use of digraphs (e.g. ⟨ng⟩ represents ⟨ң⟩, and ⟨n·g⟩ may be used to represent ⟨нг⟩).The following table describes the system and provides examples. Cyrillicletter Romanization Special provision Examples А (а)  A (a)  None '''А'''бай = '''A'''bay Ә (ә)  Ä (ä)  None '''Ә'''уезов = '''Ä'''ūezov Б (б)  B (b)  None A'''б'''ай = A'''b'''ay В (в)  V (v)  This letter occurs principally in Russian loanwords. '''В'''ладимир = '''V'''ladīmīr Г (г)  G (g)  None '''Г'''алина = '''G'''alina Ғ (ғ)  Gh (gh)  None Д (д)  D (d)  None  Е (е)  E (e)  None Ё (ё)  Yo (yo)  This letter occurs principally in Russian loanwords. Ж (ж)  Zh (zh)  None '''Ж'''амбыл = '''Zh'''ambyl З (з)  Z (z)  None  И (и)  Ī (ī)  None Ш'''и'''елі = Sh'''ī'''eli Й (й)  Y (y)  This letter does not occur in the beginning of a word in native Kazakh words. Семе'''й''' = Seme'''y'''  К (к)  K (k)  None Шым'''к'''ент = Shym'''k'''ent Қ (қ)  Q (q)  None Л (л)  L (l)  None  М (м)  M (m)  None  Н (н)  N (n)  None Өскеме'''н''' = Öskeme'''n''' Ң (ң)  Ng (ng)  This letter does not occur in the beginning of a word. Қаскеле'''ң''' = Qaskele'''ng''' О (о)  O (o)  None  Ө (ө)  Ö (ö)  None '''Ө'''скемен = '''Ö'''skemen П (п)  P (p)  None  Р (р)  R (r)  None  С (с)  S (s)  None  Т (т)  T (t)  None  У (у)  Ū (ū)  This letter represents both "long ū" and /w/ in Kazakh, the latter before and after vowels. Ұ (ұ)  U (u)  None Ү (ү)  Ü (ü)  None Ф (ф)  F (f)  This letter occurs principally in Russian loanwords. '''Ф'''урманов = '''F'''urmanov Х (х)  Kh (kh)  None  Һ (һ)  H (h)  None Ц (ц)  Ts (ts)  This letter occurs principally in Russian loanwords. Ель'''ц'''ин = Yel’tsīn Ч (ч)  Ch (ch)  This letter occurs principally in Russian loanwords. Ш (ш)  Sh (sh)  None Көк'''ш'''етау = Kök'''sh'''etaū Щ (щ)  Shch (shch)  With a few exceptions, this letter principally occurs in Russian loanwords. Ъ (ъ)  ”  This letter does not occur in the beginning of a word, and only occurs in Russian loanwords. Ы (ы)  Y (y)  This letter may optionally be transcribed as ɨ. Алмат'''ы''' = Almat'''y''' І (і)  I (i)  Шиел'''і''' = Shīel'''i''' Ь (ь)  ’  This letter does not occur in the beginning of a word, and only occurs in Russian loanwords. Э (э)  Ė (ė)  This letter only occurs in Russian loanwords. Ю (ю)  Yu (yu)  This character actually represents y + ū in native Kazakh words, and does not occur at the beginning of native Kazakh words. Я (я)  Ya (ya)  This letter does not occur at the beginning of native Kazakh words.
See also *ISO 9
Notes
References *U.S. Board on Geographic Names Foreign Names Committee Staff, 1994. ''Romanization Systems and Roman-Script Spelling Conventions'', pp. 47–48.