The authorities always know best

[Alina Israeli]

Ditto for the former official name of Коктебель (Планерское). It goes back for the word for 'glider', which can be either плáнер or планёр. As a matter of taste, I like the first one better, even though the second is closer to the French original, probably because the majority of -ёр words are of a negative connotation: позёр, мародёр, фантазёр, or at least some very common ones are. 

In my childhood the country was called Пéру, now the stress is on the last vowel. The stress in Бостон has also shifted (but not in its many eponyms).

If you remember an ethnic squabble a few years back in the north of Russia, there were similar arguments about the stress in the name of the town Кондопога, with the official stress being on the first syllable Кóндопога, which is quite unnatural for the Russian pronunciation and the penultimate stress is favored by many — Кондопóга.

On May 16, 2014, at 10:17 AM, Walt Richmond <richmond at OXY.EDU> wrote:

> I’ve always had a similar question with Планерная Район in Moscow. The subway announces the stop as Планёрная, yet all the people I know who have lived in there for a long time pronounce it Планерная, with the stress on the first syllable.
>  

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