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Should I call the capital of Ukraine /kiːɛv/ or /kiv/ (hexbear.net)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Westoids have suddenly started saying /kiv/, which alone makes me want to say /kiːɛv/, like my parents always said.

Neither is even the endonym, which is more like /kɪjiu̯/

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago

Call it whatever it was called in your language before the lib fixation with Ukraine. The locals call it something different and so what? Lots of cities around the world have different names in different languages, Roma is Rome in English and Rom in German. Praha is Prague in English and Prag in German. Moskva is Moscow in English and Moskau in German.

People have always modified the names of important cities to fit the sounds of their own languages. There is no disrespect in that, if anything, foreign languages having their own version of the name of somewhere is a sign that the place is considered important.