[Ads-l] Keev

[Ben Zimmer]

On Mon, Nov 18, 2019 at 12:10 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Rhymes with sleeve.
>
> That's how the talking heads are pronouncing the name of the capital of
> Ukraine (formerly *the* Ukraine) these days.
>

 There's been some discussion of this on Language Log:

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=45004

In the comments I linked to this recent New York Times article:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/13/us/politics/kiev-pronunciation.html

...as well as this NPR "All Things Considered" segment:

https://www.npr.org/transcripts/779318947?storyId=779318947

"In 2006, the State Department adopted that pronunciation and a different
spelling -- K-Y-I-V rather than K-I-E-V -- because it sounds more Ukrainian
rather than Russian. And by the way, it was George Kent who was the one who
got the U.S. Board on Geographic Names to agree to that change."

--bgz

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