Posted on 02/26/2022 6:33:29 AM PST by foreverfree
Some observers have questioned the adoption by the BBC of the spelling Kyiv for the capital of Ukraine instead of Kiev, as Britons and Americans have traditionally referred to it.
Many presenters are also using the accompanying pronunciation 'KEE-eve' rather than the previous 'KEE-yev', leaving some listeners confused.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Hell I’m still using Peking, Bombay and Formosa.
Why is it Istanbul and not Constantinople?
Kyiv sounds more sophisticated, whereas Kiev sounds like something that Trump would say, so I’m with Kyiv here.
> Actually, since the city is in Ukraine and not part of Russia anymore, its correct to use the Ukrainian pronunciation.
I’m from Chicago and still use the term “Sears Tower”. Probably always will.
Back in the USSR days, I used to listen to Radio Kiev on shortwave. They said Key-EV, which is the Russian pronunciation. KEY-ev is the Ukrainian. It’s two syllables either way, not one, as in Keev. A lot of times, people who don’t speak a language natively, or who don’t speak it well as a second language, or people who who don’t speak the language at all except for random words, don’t pick up on the nuances of pronunciation. They don’t hear it so they don’t pronounce the words as a native would. KEY-ev probably sounds like Keev to them when they hear it from a Ukrainian because that last syllable is very weak. I teach ESL and some of my students have the same problem with English.
(( And it’s pronounced ‘KEE-ev’,
not ‘keeve’ like all these dumbass TV-talking-heads are saying.))
I’m with you C.W.! And I’m glad this article was posted ,
I’ve been wondering for weeks about how KEE-ev suddenly
became ... keeve.
It's a point, but it smacks of being an affectation, like going around saying "Pa-ree" instead of Paris, which you only do if you are tying to sound like an effete elitist snob. And I left off intellectual because no one with any intelligence does that any more.
Kyev is newspeak. It was Kiev forever.
So you can sound like some elitist pansy on MSNCB looking down on the unsophisticated deplorable class like maybe Mika who is just so much smarter than all the rest of us because her daddy was like well you know....
Putin is a thug, and I feel for the position the Ukrainians are in. I wish our neo-cons hadn't led them on. Saying Kyiv is not going to fix any of that.
One hell of a tank battle there in the mid 1940’s.
..and Bombay, Mumbai.
Are you saying you don’t look down on all those Japanese for pronouncing it Sanfuranshisuko?
And when Peking became Beijing, did Peking duck become Beijing duck?
This is the Snowflake generation. They have a lot of trouble pronouncing words with multiple syllables. Application has become “app” etc. It helps the Snowflakes save precious energy.
This is a pet peeve of mine. This crap comes about when leftists try to sound sophisticated by putting on fake accents when they pronounce proper names from foreign languages. I lived In Germany for 2 years in the 80’s. They butchered the pronunciation of my name, the name of my country, and everything else. Did I get all cheesed off and indignant? Of course not. I was in their country, where they speak their language, and they were simply and without malice pronouncing these names according the the rules of their language. I understood what they meant so it was OK. If they really want to go down this rathole, then let everyone else in the world pronounce American proper nouns exactly how Tom Brokow would do it. Once they meet that standard, I will consider rolling my Rs when discussing central America.
In English, we say Kiev. They know what we are talking about. Deal with it.
I look down on the for the bad taste of visiting the S4ithole. It’s hard to imagine how a culture so noted for its cleanliness and tidiness would degrade itself to that level.
I had heard that Beijing is how that city’s name is pronounced in Mandarin. And this was why people in the western world started calling it Beijing rather than Peking.
Say Neekarrrrrrragua fast 10 times like an pro-Sandanista anti-American Starbucks dwelling urban sophisticate.
And Thailand is Siam, Iran is Persia, Ghana is Gold Coast, etc.
It is the new vogue to use city names in the local language. For example, Calcutta is now Kolkata, and Bombay is now Mumbai.
But logically it should be Kyiv, Ukraïna.
Moscow should be Moskva, Munich should be München, and Vienna should be Wien.
And we’re pronouncing Paris all wrong.
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