The United States Board of Geographic Names has made the determination to begin spelling the name of the capital city of Ukraine as Kyiv. The name Kyiv better approximates the pronunciation by Ukrainians and to matches the spelling of the city name by international organizations and other countries. The Associated Press, however, will continue spelling Kiev as Kiev. This interesting AP story about the Kiev-Kyiv change goes on to say that Myanmar is still known as Burma, according to the U.S. government.
Explore Geography
Comments
How about spelling Moscow as Moskva?
I’m with you – it should be Moskva everywhere.
So, does that mean it’s pronounced KEEVE?
So does Chicken Kiev now become Chicken Kyiv?
Someone needs to get a life and actually ask the Russians how they would like it spelt – it’s their city after all and not the Americans!!
As native Ukrainian I should say that Kiev is more used in Ukraine than Kyiv
– Kiev trip agency
Kiev is much better
–
Kiev trip agency
Kyiv. Ukrainian GOV spells this way.
Kyiv. Ukrainian GOV spells this way. I like it more.
Here goes an article of how to pronounce Kyiv:
http://kyiv.of-cour.se/2008/09/20/how-to-pronounce-kyiv/
In Ukraine, every media writes Kyiv alredy for years. It is just Western media legging behind.
As a native Kyiver I’d say Kyiv is the proper way to write and say. Besides, it is the only official name of the city. Why to be constantly mistaken?
Kiev is pronounced (by me) in two syllables as Kee-YEV. The letter “i” in American English is a problem; if English was consistent, the new spelling of Kyiv would be pronounced Kyeev – one syllable, but I’ll bet it turns out to be more like Kyiv as in “live.” How DO the Ukrainians do it?
Oh, wait – is that “live” as in “not dead”? Or “live” as in “I live there”?