EDITORIAL: How do you spell 8W2? K-Y-I-V (11/12/06)

EDITORIAL

How do you spell Kyiv? K-Y-I-V

Just three weeks ago, we reported that the U.S. Board on Geographic Names had voted unanimously to change its standard transliteration of the name of Ukraine's capital from "Kiev" to "Kyiv" and that the U.S. Department of State had directed all its operations "to immediately begin using the new spelling 'Kyiv.' "

The Board on Geographic Names (BGN), which is tasked with standardizing geographic nomenclature for official U.S. government use, wrote that its decision was based "on recommendations from the Department of State that Kyiv is the locally preferred Latin-alphabet rendering of the place-name and should be available for official use better to assist the people and government of Ukraine to promote that country's national identity."

In fact, it was 11 years earlier, on October 14, 1995, that the Committee on Legal Terminology headed by the newly appointed justice minister of Ukraine, Serhii Holovatyi, adopted "Kyiv" as the official spelling that would henceforth be used in all legal and official acts of Ukraine, emphasizing that foreign-language spellings of place names in Ukraine should be based on the Ukrainian-language.

Prior to that it was like alphabet soup. In January 1993 the Ukrainian Mapping Agency, Ukraine's state cartographic service, had adopted the ungainly spelling "Kyyiv," which was also adopted by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names and the National Geographic Society. However, some sources stuck to "Kiev," others used "Kyyiv," and still others employed such variations as "Kyªv" and even "Kyjiv." (At one point in our year-in-review issue, we suggested the alternate spelling "Quayiv.")

And now we have "Kyiv." At the daily press briefing at the State Department on October 19, Deputy Spokesman Tom Casey explained, correctly, that "this is more in keeping with how the Ukrainians themselves pronounce the name of their capital. It is also now in keeping with how a number of international organizations, including NATO and the U.N., are now spelling it."

In reporting on the new spelling, Harry Dunphy of the Associated Press, rather curiously, wrote: "... the State Department says the spelling change has nothing to do with American hopes of wooing the one-time Soviet republic more into the Western orbit. About half of Ukraine's 47 million people are Russian speakers, and Kiev is the Russian spelling. Ukraine's Western-leaning President Viktor Yushchenko ... has sought to take his nation out of Russia's influence and join NATO and the European Union." The story ended with the statement: "The Associated Press continues to spell the name of the capital Kiev."

Well, it seems they just don't get it! But, maybe it'll just take a little more time for the AP and other news providers to catch on. That's why we urge our readers to write to the news media to encourage them to use the spelling K-Y-I-V, in accordance with the wishes of the government of Ukraine and the decision of the authoritative U.S. Board on Geographic Names.

It's time for Ukraine's capital to be known by its proper name.

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