Why on Earth have we changed Kiev to Kyiv

[GingerBeerMan]

I have never understood why in English an "s" is added to the names of the French cities of Lyon and Marseille.

After Wikipedia'ing Lyon it appears you are correct. I had no idea the English added an 's' until now. I just call it Lyon

 

[Lord Bracknell]

I have never understood why in English an "s" is added to the names of the French cities of Lyon and Marseille.

It's the same mystery as to why the Italians spell Edinburgh with an "m" ... Edimburgo.

 

[fork me]

Who can forget the legendary NSC thread about Bangkok 'It is known to locals as Krung Thep'

Even Krung Thep is an abbreviation, the full name is Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or กรุงเทพมหานคร if you want to have no idea how to pronounce it. It means city of angels, so maybe we should call it Los Angeles, that would cause no confusion whatsoever!

 

[Lady Whistledown]

It's very irritating when the media change our words for particular places. Bombay and Peking spring to mind. If e go along that route, as mentioned places such as Rome and Munich would also need a new spelling.

Mumbai/Bombay was an official name change, along with Chennai/Madras and Kolkata/Calcutta. I'm guessing that it was an attempt, perhaps not unreasonably, by the Indians to move on from colonialism.

Doesn't bother me. I can't honestly see why on earth anyone would get upset or start spouting the ever-tiresome "political correctness gone mad" over something that has absolutely zero impact on any of our lives.

If they want it called Kyiv, then Kyiv it is. Various footballers changed the spelling of their names following the collapse of the old Soviet Union, to reflect their "new" local language, so why not places too?

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

I thought Kiev was the translation from Russian to English and changed to Kyiv as the Ukrainian's reclaimed their language after the break up of the USSR. What confuses me is the city of Lviv used to be Lvov and that is a different pronunciation whereas Kyiv bears a resemblance to what it used to be known as. In Poland everyone around the world refers to Auschwitz using the German spelling but within Poland the town is known as Oświęcim.

 

[W.C.]

Mumbai/Bombay was an official name change, along with Chennai/Madras and Kolkata/Calcutta. I'm guessing that it was an attempt, perhaps not unreasonably, by the Indians to move on from colonialism.

Doesn't bother me. I can't honestly see why on earth anyone would get upset or start spouting the ever-tiresome "political correctness gone mad" over something that has absolutely zero impact on any of our lives.

If they want it called Kyiv, then Kyiv it is. Various footballers changed the spelling of their names following the collapse of the old Soviet Union, to reflect their "new" local language, so why not places too?

all of this

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

The city we know as Prague is also known as Praha , Prag or Praga depending on which European country you are in.

 

[Jesus Gul]

There should be universal names for each country, from the language that the country speaks:

]

that's why I love Panini albums.

 

[Lincoln Imp]

An odd one is the Flanders town we call by its French name of Bruges, even though the residents, who are Flemish-speaking, call it Brugge. We then try to level the score by calling the adjacent seaport by its proper Flemish name of Zeebrugge.

 

[beorhthelm]

Mumbai/Bombay was an official name change, along with Chennai/Madras and Kolkata/Calcutta. I'm guessing that it was an attempt, perhaps not unreasonably, by the Indians to move on from colonialism.

the Indians changing the name make sence. i just dont see the need for us to follow when there are so many English versions of place names we dont see the need to correct.

An odd one is the Flanders town we call by its French name of Bruges, even though the residents, who are Flemish-speaking, call it Brugge. We then try to level the score by calling the adjacent seaport by its proper Flemish name of Zeebrugge.

the oddest one is Dutch, a corruption of Deutsch by the English, not refering to the Netherlands name in either ours or their language. and then theres the whole Holland thing, which is a region.

 

[The Brighton Bear]

Looking forward to a nice Chechen Kyiv for me tea tonight.

Does that mean that my Chicken Kiev is out of date then?