[Ads-l] Keev

[Jonathan Lighter]

>   adopted that pronunciation

Namely Kyiv, not Keev.

JL

On Mon, Nov 18, 2019 at 1:27 PM Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


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