A while ago there was a merge request created for KGeography asking to change Kiev to Kyiv saying "this is the official transliteration of the name for the city".
But that's not what the default text in KGeography shows, the default text in KGeography not the official names of places, the default text in KGeography is the American English translation of KGeography, that's why it says Poland and not Polska.
So question for you American English speakers, if you wanted to write the name of the capital of Ukraine, would you write Kiev or Kyiv?
Edit: comments blocked because there's an body without brain that can't behave in the internet.
There is actually a Wikipedia article about this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_Kyiv
ReplyDeleteAs an American, Kiev was the first spelling of it that I learned and I think most Americans know Kiev more than they know Kyiv. I have no data to back that up, but the Wikipedia article does.
Also American, I agree with "Kiev was the first spelling of it that I learned", but things change, and the U.S. Board on Geographic Names choice is now Kyiv. Unless you are talking about the chicken dish (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_Kiev).
ReplyDeleteApparently this is a thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KyivNotKiev
ReplyDeleteMaybe it is more polite to Ukrainians to spell it as Kyiv these days.
Hi, I'm afraid that translation and transliteration is confused here. Translation is the conversion of a word into another language. Transliteration is a representation of a word, so it could be pronounced as closely as possible to the original while using the character set and pronunciation rules of another language.
ReplyDeleteThis means in this case:
The correct translation into US English is decided by US authorities.
The correct transliteration into US English is decided by Ukrainian authorities.
Apparently the US decided to adapt to the Ukrainian request and renamed the US English word to Kyiv:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.usembassy.gov/ukraine/
> Hi, I'm afraid that translation and transliteration is confused here.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand why you think there was confusion about different words meaning different things.
> I don't understand why you think there was confusion about different words meaning different things.
DeleteBecause the merge request argues about the transliteration while the problem is about translation. Much people are unaware of the difference.