Overview
ISO 9985:1996 - "Information and documentation - Transliteration of Armenian characters into Latin characters" defines a standardized, stringent and reversible transliteration system for the modern Armenian alphabet into Latin script. Published as the first edition in 1996 by ISO/TC 46 (Information and documentation), the standard is intended to enable unambiguous international information exchange - particularly by electronic means - without attempting to represent pronunciation.
Key topics and technical requirements
- Character-by-character transliteration: The standard prioritizes a one-to-one mapping so that every Armenian character can be uniquely reconstituted from the Latin representation (retransliteration).
- Stringent (fully reversible) approach: ISO 9985 establishes a primary level of conversion that permits exact reverse mapping. It distinguishes this from simplified or popular romanization levels, which may sacrifice reversibility for usability.
- Transliteration table: A core component is a table mapping the modern Armenian alphabet to Latin characters (Table 1). Where the Latin inventory is smaller, the standard permits the controlled use of digraphs or diacritics.
- Punctuation and special signs: The standard provides mappings for Armenian punctuation marks (Table 2) to corresponding ISO/646 or common Latin punctuation symbols.
- Diacritics and encoded characters: Diacritics and special signs referenced are drawn from ISO 5426 (extension of the Latin alphabet for bibliographic interchange), ensuring compatibility with bibliographic character sets.
- Principles: The document emphasizes univocal conversion (not phonetic), handling of capitalisation where applicable, and the need to avoid arbitrary or purely national conventions when defining the international form.
Applications and users
ISO 9985 is relevant for:
- Libraries, archives and cataloguers creating bibliographic records, indices and catalogs that require consistent Armenian romanization for sorting and retrieval.
- Publishers and editors preparing international publications with Armenian names or titles.
- GIS / cartography and toponym databases that require standardized place-name romanization.
- Software developers and data engineers (internationalization, search, OCR/post‑processing) implementing reversible Armenian-to-Latin transliteration in databases, search engines, and electronic interchange formats.
- Linguists and standards bodies establishing national variants compatible with the international system.
Related standards
- ISO 5426 - extension of the Latin alphabet for bibliographic information interchange (diacritics referenced).
- ISO/IEC 646 - 7‑bit coded character set for information interchange (punctuation references).
- ISO/TC 46 publications on conversion of written languages and transliteration principles.
Keywords: ISO 9985, transliteration of Armenian, Armenian to Latin, romanization, reversible transliteration, bibliographic interchange, ISO 5426, international information exchange.