If you want to know how to pronounce the name
of the capital city of Ukraine in English, it's Kyiv. There you go, I hope that was
helpful. No wait! Don't go! There's more... Hi I'm Dave Huxtable and I'm a polyglot, language
coach and phonetician. I'm here today in this computer-generated wheat field – better for
my allergies – to look at how to talk about Kyiv and Ukraine in a way that respects and
gives moral support to the Ukrainian people. Lots of people seem to have convinced
themselves that Ukrainians call their capital Keev, to rhyme with Steve, weave,
leave, pet peeve etc. They don't. That doesn't stop some people from
getting quite worked up about it. Mike the DM (the Canadian Captain America) says. The capital of Ukraine is Kyiv. Kyiv (Pronounced
Keev) is the transliteration from Ukrainian. Kiev, pronounced key-ev, is
the Russian transliteration. One small way to stand with the Ukrainian people. Try to stick with the first
spelling and pronunciation. Yeah, but it's not Keev. And while we're at it, wouldn't the Canadian Captain America be
called Captain Canada/Le Capitain Canada? Mary-Jo Woods, a US House
candidate from Texas, proclaims: It is Kyiv (KEEV) not Kiev. Kyiv is from the Ukrainian language.
Kiev is from the Russian language. #KyivEukraine #Kyivnotkiev
That got her a whole 35 likes and 8 retweets – I hope that isn't an
indication of how her campaign is going. Sebastian XR, Lover of knowledge.| Crypto & Forex
Trader.|Drummer.| Public Speaker.| Political enthusiast.| Gamer (gaming console emoji) doesn't
get Ms Woods's point. He says Okay... your point? I think, Sebastian, that her
point is that people should say Keev instead of Kiev. She's very well
intentioned in that point, but sadly wrong. So the basic premise is that we should use the
Ukrainian name for the city, rather than the Russian one, and that we should pronounce it how
Ukrainians do. I couldn't agree more. The problem comes when people start convincing themselves
that Ukrainians say Keev, which they don't. Now I most admit at this point that I don't
speak Ukrainian and have never been to Ukraine. I can read phonetic transcriptions, though
and have a pretty good ear for pronunciation which lets me analyze what people are
saying when I listen to audio and video. In Ukrainian, Kyiv is spelt Київ. The
K is used to represent the sound /k/, so far so easy. /И/ is pronounced /ɪ/. The
letter Ї is pretty much unique to Ukrainian, where it respresents the sound sequence /ji/,
like the beginning of the English word 'yeast' So thus far, we have /kɪ/ /ji/, definitely
two syllables with a /j/ in the middle. In most languages that use the Cyrillic alphabet,
В represents a /v/ sound. Not in Ukrainian. Here, it represents a group of sounds more like
the English W than V. For some speakers it's a /w/ sound, using both lips. For others its
/ʋ/, which brings the bottom lip up near the top teeth without touching. This is like the W in
standard Dutch, De kwallen wachten in het water. It's also the sound used by people
stigmatized as 'unable to say their rs'. "Round and round the rugged
rocks the ragged rascal ran." After vowels, this Ukrainian /ʋ/ sound shows up as a very short /u/. Putting
all this together gives us [ˈkɪjiu̯] So there you go. If you really want to say
it like the Ukrainins do it's [ˈkɪjiu̯]. Which is all lovely but if you use it
in an English sentence people won't know where you are talking about. That's why
I'd suggest /ˈkiːjɪv/ as a happy medium. Not that everyone is happy, of course. The Gormogons tweeted. CZ I assume since it's the hipster
thing to say "Kyiv" instead of "Kiev..." 1. It's not pronounced "keev" but "kyif." 2. You will also start saying
"Moskva," "Warsawa, [sic]" and "Roma," since English names of
foreign cities are no longer cool. Dumbasses. I love the idea that some places
have special hipster names. So we've got The City, Madtown ,
Beervana, A2 , Berserkeley, Foco, The Mini Apple and Sea-Town as the most hipster
cities in the US. And now Kyiv - who knew? If you know the hipster for London, Paris, Ouagadougou
or Ulaan Baator do let me know in the comments. The Gomagons isn't/aren't alone in worrying
that we'll soon have to call places what Johnny Foreigner calls them. None other
than Winston Churchill clearly had a bee in his bonnet about this. In a memo to the
foreign office on St George's Day 1945, he was affronted at the suggestion that Englishmen
should call the capital of Turkey Ankara. "I do not consider that names that have
been familiar for generations in England should be altered to study the whims of foreigners
living in those parts. [...] Constantinople should never be abandoned, though for stupid people
Istanbul may be written in brackets after it. As for Angora, long familiar
with us through the Angora cats, I will resist to the utmost of my
power its degradation to Ankara." Maybe if he hadn't been distracted by winning
World War II, we might never have lost the connecting between Ankara and long-haired cats,
which I must admit I was unaware of before I discovered this quote. The memo continues,
outlining even direr consequences to ensue. If we do not make a stand we shall
in a few weeks be asked to call Leghorn Livorno, and the BBC will
be pronouncing Paris 'Paree'. Sorry, Winnie, but you let us down on that
one. No one calls Livorno Leghorn anymore. I don't really get why they ever did. "Curruthers,
ask that foreign chappie what this place is called." Yes, sir. Scuzzo signor. This place.
Name?" "Ah come si chiama questa città? Livorno!" "What did he say?" "I don't know
sir, it sounded like Leghorn" Churchill also wrote criticizing a friend for
pronouncing French placenames à la française. Marsay, Lee-on and Callay, instead
of Marsails, Lions and Callis. I imagine the older English names
for French places fell into disuse as travel increased. It is far from unusual, though,
for place names to change when countries become independent. That's how Constantinople
and Angora became Istanbul and Ankara as Turks were now running their own country and
got to decide what their cities were called. The collapse of the Soviet Union let to a whole
series of changes. Byelorussia became Belarus, though sadly not much changed in its politics. In
Kazakhstan Alma Ata became Almaty, and the capital Akmola became Astana in 1998 and Nur-Sultan in
2019. The capital of Kyrgyzstan was called Frunze until it was renamed Bishkek in 1991. And the
city known as Kiev in Soviet times officially changed to Kyiv in 1995, so we've had 27 years
to get used to it! And to pronounce it correctly. Thank you so much for watching.
