Russian media in Tallin warned over spelling

[Harold F. Schiffman]

Russian media in Tallin warned over spelling

Tallinn, Wednesday, 05 April 2006 by Aleksandr Shegedin

The Estonian Language Inspectorate has sent a written  warning to Tallinn
Russian-medium city paper Kristiine because of the Russian spelling of
Tallinn with one n. Russian linguists point out that according to the
rules of Russian grammar it is a mistake to use name of the Estonian
capital with two ns in Russian.

However, Language Inspectorate adviser Hele Parn says that Russian-medium
publications in Estonia must follow Estonian language law, which has rules
for spelling Estonian place-names in Russian. These rules say that Tallinn
must be spelled with two ns .  The Language Inspectorate has drawn
attention to the problem before. For example, in autumn 2004 the
Inspectorate found that many editions of Russian-medium newspapers and
internet-sites had followed the rules issued in Russia in 1995, where
official names of countries and cities are in Russian, including Tallinn
with one n. The Inspectorate has pointed out that this conflicts with
Estonian language legislation. The opinion of Russian scientists has a
right to exist, but we have our own regulations here in Estonia says Ilmar
Tomusk, Director of the Language Inspectorate. (Eurolang 2006)


http://www.eurolang.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2582&Itemid=1&lang=en