October 25, 2019

It’s K-Y-I-V

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This year has been filled with good news about various entities adopting the correct spelling of Ukraine’s capital city: Kyiv. First came moves by international airports to change the way the capital is rendered on its flight arrivals and departures lists. One by one, airports in Canada, Europe, the Mideast and Africa announced the change. By July 1, the count was up to 50 airports. It was part of the very successful campaign launched by Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In an open letter, the ministry explained: “Under the Russian empire and later the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Russification was actively used as a tool to extinguish each constituent country’s national identity, culture and language. In light of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, including its illegal occupation of Crimea, we are once again experiencing Russification as a tactic that attempts to destabilize and delegitimize our country. You will appreciate, we hope, how the use of Soviet-era place names – rooted in the Russian language – is especially painful and unacceptable to the people of Ukraine. … To better inform the international community about the correct forms of Ukrainian place names and to avoid mistakes, we are launching the campaign: #CorrectUA.”

To be sure, this was not the first time the “Kyiv” spelling was promoted. On October 14, 1995, Ukraine’s Committee on Legal Terminology headed by Justice Minister of Ukraine Serhii Holovatyi had 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. The U.S. Department of State reported that on October 3, 2006, the Board on Geographic Names (BGN) unanimously voted to change the BGN standard transliteration of the name of the Ukrainian capital to Kyiv. This decision affected the whole U.S. government. All State Department offices and operations we requested “to immediately begin using the new spelling ‘Kyiv’ in all written communication.” The American diplomatic post there became Embassy Kyiv.

The attention on how Ukraine’s capital city is spelled has intensified this year because lately Ukraine appears in the headlines in this country nearly every day. In mid-February, the international newspaper The Guardian changed its style guide to read, simply and succinctly: “Kyiv not Kiev.” In late August, the big breakthrough came when the Associated Press – which serves thousands of media outlets in over 100 countries – announced: “AP has changed its style for the capital of Ukraine to Kyiv, in line with the Ukrainian government’s preferred transliteration to English and increasing usage. Include a reference in stories to the former spelling of Kiev. The food dish remains chicken Kiev.”

On October 10, The Globe and Mail of Canada made the change, and correspondent Adrian Morrow tweeted: “The Globe is changing its style on the capital of Ukraine from the Russian-derived ‘Kiev’ to ‘Kyiv,’ the transliteration the Ukrainian government uses.” The Wall Street Journal acted on October 9, the BBC adopted the correct spelling on October 14, and The Washington Post announced on October 16 that it had officially changed its guidelines on spelling to “Kyiv” and that the change went into effect immediately.

Now, some may say the spelling issue is unimportant, a minor irritant. But there is much more to it. We direct our readers’ attention to a commentary on the Atlantic Council website by Peter Dickinson (https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/kyiv-not-kiev-why-spelling-matters-in-ukraines-quest-for-an-independent-identity/). He writes: “…Ukraine’s desire for the outside world to use Ukrainian-language transliterations appears anything but trivial. On the contrary, it is a plea for symbolic support in what is one of world history’s last great independence struggles. Ukraine’s nation-building journey is far from over, but establishing Ukrainian names for Ukrainian places is an essential early step on the long road to recovery. The international media’s ongoing adoption of the preferred ‘Kyiv’ spelling may seem inconsequential, but it represents a meaningful contribution to this process.”

In 2006, we had written in an editorial that it was time for Ukraine’s capital to be known by its proper name. Thirteen years later, we can report much progress, but at the same time we call on other news media to show Ukraine the respect due any independent country and adopt the proper spelling for its capital. Memo to The New York Times, Reuters et al: It’s K-Y-I-V.

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