Kiev

Kiev (Ukrainian: {{Audio|Kyiv.ogg|????}}, Kyiv; Russian: {{Audio|ru-Kiev.ogg|?????}}, Kiev; also spelled Kyiv (see also Cities' alternative names), is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper river. As of 2003, Kiev officially had 2,642,486 inhabitants, although the large number of unregistered migrants would probably raise this figure to about three million. Administratively, Kiev is a national-level subordinated municipality, independent from surrounding Kiev Oblast. Kiev is an important industrial, scientific, educational and cultural center of Eastern Europe. It is home to many high-tech industries, higher education institutions, world-famous museums and art institutions. The city has an extensive infrastructure and highly developed system of public transport, including a Kiev Metro system.

Kiev or Kyiv?

English traveller Joseph Marshall called city Kiovia in his book Travels published in London in 1772. The city has been called Kiev in English since at least the 19th century. The earliest quotation in the Oxford English Dictionary containing "Kiev" is dated 1883, while the name was used in print as early as 1823 in the English traveller Mary Holderness' travelogue New Russia. Journey from Riga to the Crimea by way of Kiev.

Related Topics:
English - 19th century - Oxford English Dictionary - 1883 - 1823

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In 1995, the Ukrainian government made a declaration concerning English-language usage of the name of the city, favoring the use of Kyiv over Kiev. This act has legal jurisdiction only over Ukrainian government spelling of the city's name. It says in part:

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• To acknowledge that the Roman spelling of Kiev does not recreate the phonetic and scriptural features of the Ukrainian language geographical name.
• To confirm that the spelling of Kyiv as standardized Roman-letter correspondence to the Ukrainian language geographical name of ????.
• On the basis of point 7 of the Provision on the Ukrainian Commission for Legal Terminology, determine as mandatory the standardized Roman-letter spelling of Kyiv for use in legislative and official acts.

Many people have followed suit and use the spelling Kyiv in all Latin alphabet publications. The new spelling Kyiv is increasingly being used by the United Nations and most English-speaking diplomatic missions, and by some English-language publications.

Related Topics:
Latin alphabet - United Nations - Diplomatic mission

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Some find the spelling Kiev inappropriate, because it reflects Russian instead of Ukrainian pronunciation. Some even consider it offensive, a remnant of Russification under Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union. However, the Kiev spelling was used in English before reforms of Ukrainian orthography and vocabulary, and also reflects the Old East Slavic (the language of the ancestors of modern Ukrainians and Russians) spelling of the name (??????). The name is pronounced by Ukrainians and many Russians as one would in English say "Keev."

Related Topics:
Russian - Ukrainian - Russification - Imperial Russia - Soviet Union - Old East Slavic

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Some writers of English do not accept the authority of the Ukrainian government over English spelling. They point out that the spelling Kiev remains the most widespread spelling in English by a substantial margin and that many cities have different names in English than in their native language, such as Moscow and Warsaw.

Related Topics:
Moscow - Warsaw

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