‘We want to use our own names’: Language experts explain importance of Ukrainian cities’ spellings

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sparked questions over why Ukrainian cities have historically been transliterated after their Russian versions.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked the world to use the Ukrainian spellings of Ukraine’s cities.Tensions between Russia and Ukraine over language goes back centuries.Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has drawn into question the spellings and why they matter.Ukraine in March asked the world to practice its spelling.”High time to finally discard the outdated Soviet spelling of our cities and adopt the correct Ukrainian form,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a tweet, adding the hashtag #KyivNotKiev.As the war between Russia and Ukraine rages in its second month, a leader’s focus on spelling might seem trivial. But Ukrainian language experts say the distinctions between Russian and Ukrainian spellings and pronunciations, particularly of cities, are vital to recognizing the two countries as separate. “The way a place name is spelled has far-reaching political implications, particularly in the context of two countries, one of which is an imperial metropolis and another one that used to be its colony,” said Yuri Shevchuk, a Ukrainian language lecturer at Columbia University with expertise in language’s ties to culture, identity and politics.Here’s what you need to know about the distinctions.Live updates on Ukraine:: Putin says peace talks at ‘dead end,’ US ‘deeply concerned’ about chemical weaponsLanguages at oddsIn the 17th and 18th centuries, Russia — then known as Muscovy — and Ukraine’s cultures grew closer in contact, Shevchuk said. Threatened by that, Muscovite czars ordered Ukrainian gospels be deemed heretical. From there, more than 150 different laws and rules were passed aimed at prohibiting and disappearing Ukrainian language from public use.”The Ukrainian language was viewed as something hostile, as something to be destroyed,” Shevchuk said. “The history of Russian-Ukrainian relations has always, for centuries, been a history of culture war.”UN shuns Russia: Russia voted out of UN Human Rights Council amid Ukraine invasionUnlike other colonizing empires, like Britain or France, Russia didn’t simply ban public use of the Ukrainian language. It sought to take it apart. Russia interfered with the inner structure of the Ukrainian language, trying to bring it closer to the Russian language at the levels of phonetics, vocabulary and syntax. For example, Ukrainian has a vocative case — the noun or pronoun used to address a person directly — while Russian does not. In the early 1930s, Russia declared there was no need to use the vocative case, causing generations of Ukrainians to learn the language without using it, despite its presence in classical Ukrainian writings, Shevchuk said; that lasted until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Russia’s intent, Shevchuk said, was to strip Ukrainian of anything that made the language interesting, attractive or unique. “Then, Ukrainians themselves would decide ‘independently’ or ‘voluntarily’ to switch from Ukrainian to Russian, because Ukrainian is a poor, pale simulacrum of Russian, lacking prestige and lacking political and symbolic capital — and Russian having it all galore,” he said. Cities’ namesRussia’s actions against the Ukrainian language and historical place in the spotlight has impacted city names.Many of Ukraine’s cities are named after saints or important rulers. To make those names possessive, Ukrainian adds an -iv while Russian adds an -ov or -ev, ultimately due to a 12th century sound change in Ukrainian that didn’t occur in Russian, according to Michael Flier, professor of Ukrainian philology at Harvard University.Take Kyiv, for example. The founder of Ukraine’s capital was named Kyi in Ukrainian, or Kiy in Russian. So, Kyi’s city becomes “Kyiv” in Ukrainian, whereas Kiy’s city became “Kiev” in Russian.”Some city names sound differently in Russian and in Ukrainian – say, Kharkiv is Kharkov in Russian; Lviv is Lvov in Russian,” said Serguei Oushakine, a professor of Slavic languages and literature at Princeton University. “It is like, (in) English, Moscow is Moskva in Russian or Paris is Parizh in Russian.”Recent news: Ukraine train station hit by deadly Russian rocket attackUkrainian also doesn’t use double letters, which is why it’s “Odessa” in Russian and “Odesa” in Ukrainian, Flier said.”There are two different pronunciations, but since history will show you that it was the Russian Empire that had the attention of the world, (Ukraine) was always in a position not to forge ahead with his own name because the Russians were in charge,” Flier said. “And so therefore, it was the Russian spelling, and pronunciation that held true until now.”Opinion: Why do we say ‘Kyiv,’ not ‘Kiev’? The political history behind Ukraine’s capital cityWhy it’s relevant todayThough the names of Ukrainian cities have historically been translated from the Russian Cyrillic alphabet to other alphabets, year of tension between the nations and Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February has caused many to question why.”This is a technical issue, but nothing in language is technical; everything is political,” Oushakine said.Ukrainian became the official state language of Ukraine in 1989, but the Russian spellings of their cities persisted.  Emotional and historical attachments are often held in connection to the names of cities, amplifying the desire to have others get it right. Flier compared the misspellings of cities to the misspellings of names, akin to insisting on calling an American named “Peter” instead “Pierre.””It’s recognition that Ukraine is no longer a part of the Soviet Union; it’s no longer under the command of Russia and therefore, you know, we want to use our own names,” Flier said. U.S. responds: WH slams ‘horrific’ attack on Ukraine train stationIn 2018, Ukraine’s foreign ministry launched the campaign “CorrectUA” to hold leading Western media outlets accountable for utilizing the wrong spelling of its cities. The ministry’s online campaign used the hashtag #KyivNotKiev and featured posts with incorrect spellings of Kyiv by outlets like the New York Times, BBC and Reuters, according to a 2018 press release on the effort. As a result of the campaign, those outlets and others, like the Associated Press and Washington Post, adjusted their style guides to reflect the Ukrainian spellings. The U.S. Board on Geographic Names within the Department of Interior also retired the spelling of “Kiev” and adopted “Kyiv.” “Kiev” is now considered an unofficial variant name. “I think it was always the case that, in Ukrainian, (city names) were pronounced the way that they’re now written, the Ukrainian way, but it’s just that Ukrainian always had to play second fiddle to Russia because the Russians were in charge of the country,” Flier said. “…It really comes down to just letting Ukraine show itself for what it is — letting Ukraine have its own identity.”