BGN/PCGN romanization refers to the systems for romanization (transliteration into the Latin alphabet) and Roman-script spelling conventions adopted by the United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) and the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use (PCGN).
The systems have been approved by the BGN and the PCGN for application to geographic names, but they have also been used for personal names and text in the U.S. and the U.K. [1].
Details of these systems are outlined in the U.S. BGN 1994 publication Romanization Systems and Roman-Script Spelling Conventions, which supersedes the older Romanization Guide (1972). Romanization systems and spelling conventions for different languages were gradually introduced over the course of several years. As of today, BGN/PCGN systems and agreements cover the following twenty-nine languages (the date of adoption is given in the parentheses) below.
In addition to the systems above, BGN/PCGN adopted Roman Script Spelling Conventions for languages that use the Roman alphabet but use letters not present in the English alphabet. These conventions exist for the following four languages: