Ask the Editor - Kyiv’s evolving pronunciation

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, April 1st. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Up next: Ask the Editor. Here’s WORLD Radio Executive Producer Paul Butler to answer one of your recent questions.

PAUL BUTLER, EXECUTIVE EDITOR: A few weeks ago, Theresa Hollinger sent us this question:

LISTENER: I was wondering if you could clarify something for me, the pronunciation of the capital city of Ukraine: is it Kiev, Kiev, or Kyiv? I’ve heard all three pronunciations used on your podcast and being a lover of language I would love to know what the correct pronunciation is.

It’s a straightforward enough question, but the answer isn’t quite as simple as it seems. Anytime we try to pronounce a name from another language, it requires a little interpretation. Added to that, there’s some political history that plays into how to pronounce Ukraine’s capital city. So, I asked a few of our reporters to help answer your question. First, correspondent Jill Nelson:

JILL NELSON: There are two slightly different ways to pronounce the capital of Ukraine: one is Ukrainian and the other is Russian. About 30 percent of Ukrainians speak Russian, but Ukrainian is the official language and is spoken by the vast majority of people.

After the Russian takeover of Crimea and Donbas in 2014, Ukrainians really pushed for acknowledgement of the Ukrainian spelling and pronunciation of their capital city. The Associated Press and others, including WORLD, officially made that change in 2019.

So here’s Kostya Farkovets saying both the Russian and the preferred Ukrainian pronunciation of their capital:

KOSTYA: It used to be Kiev; That’s from Russian. In Ukrainian it’s pronounced harder: Kyiv.

English speakers might struggle with that a bit, so most simply say “Keev.”

BUTLER: That’s helpful, but let’s be honest, we all know someone who pronounces our own home town’s name a little differently than everyone else—I didn’t want to rely on just one answer.

So I asked WORLD’s European Correspondent Jenny Lind Schmitt to see what she could find out.

JENNY LIND SCHMITT, REPORTER: Like most Americans, I grew up pronouncing the large city in the region of Ukraine as Kiev. But at that time, it was under the domination of the Soviet Union. And most transliterations into the English language followed the Russian pronunciation. After Ukraine’s independence in 1991, the government started changing geographic signs to spellings that aligned with the Ukrainian language instead of Russian. Since then, official English transliterations have slowly followed suit. But most Americans didn’t notice until this year.

On Monday I met Nadia Huk, who’d just arrived in France from the city in question, seeking refuge from the war. She’s a professional legal interpreter, so I decided to ask her.

NADIA: I would like to tell you about the right pronunciation of the name of the Ukrainian capital. It was founded by three brothers and their sister. Kyi, Shchek, and Khoryv, and their sister Lybid. And the city was named after the eldest brother Kyi. And that’s why the name of the city is Kyiv…so the correct transliteration should be K-Y-I-V...

BUTLER: Theresa, you specifically asked about Kyiv, but perhaps you’ve also noticed that there are other names and places we’ve started to say a little differently. I thought before wrapping up, Kent Covington should offer just a little explanation from our newsroom style guide.

KENT COVINGTON: Sometimes we will hear a place pronounced a little differently by a credible source, for example, the State Department or another network like the BBC. And that causes us to investigate. And sometimes, we determine that we’re using the most accurate pronunciation.

However, we do still Americanize the names of places. For instance, we say Mexico, not meh-he-co.

But when it comes to a person’s name, our newsroom policy is to try and get as close as possible to the way that person says their name. Sometimes I try and fail miserably! But I try.

One example would be the president of Ukraine. Many might simply say vuh-loh-duh-myr. But as I understand it, the most accurate pronunciation is Voe-loh-DEE-myhr, emphasis on the third syllable. So, again, sometimes we try and fail, but that’s what we endeavor to do.

BUTLER: So Theresa, I hope that helps. Thanks for the question. I hope you’re satisfied with the answer!

I’m Paul Butler.

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