On 2017-12-15 15:07:36 (-0500), Random832 wrote:
As to the question of Kyiv itself...
In googling for information on this, I did find the following claim at https://www.calvertjournal.com/features/show/4927:
"The request by the Ukrainian government for Kyiv to become the standard English spelling has been successful to an extent, with the US Board on Geographic Names approving the spelling and the White House and UK Foreign Office, among others, using it."
I found that document when I did a search earlier but checking in the database of the US Board on Geographic Names, I found "Kiev" listed as the "conventional" spelling and "Kyiv" as "accepted". I was not able to find an authoritative document from the UK Foreign Office (and did not check the White House).
I think (if this is indeed the case), this is a strong argument for making the change.
It is a strong argument but I don't think it's strong enough. I would be a lot more convinced by style guides of a good number of English language publications adopting the new spelling. As pointed out earlier in this thread, this has been discussed (to exhaustion) on the English language Wikipedia talk page on Kiev (sic). While I'd be hesitant to consider Wikipedia as a reference on many (most) subjects, I think we can probably trust their judgement on what places are commonly named.
Incidentally, this is not without precedent. The following links all appear to be the result of similar "transliteration" changes. Link Asia/Ashgabat Asia/Ashkhabad Link Asia/Kolkata Asia/Calcutta Link Asia/Dhaka Asia/Dacca Link Asia/Kathmandu Asia/Katmandu Link Asia/Macau Asia/Macao Link Asia/Yangon Asia/Rangoon Link Asia/Thimphu Asia/Thimbu Link Asia/Ulaanbaatar Asia/Ulan_Bator Link Pacific/Pohnpei Pacific/Ponape Link Pacific/Chuuk Pacific/Truk
With the exceptions of Pohnpei and Chuuk (which I rarely encounter at all) and Yangon, I cannot remember the last time I encountered the old spellings of any of the places on this list. On the other hand, I encounter Kiev a lot more often than Kyiv (except in discussions on renaming it!). That's obviously a very subjective data point though. I do recall that tzdb changed the links only long after the "modern" names were undisputably in common use as opposed to when they were "officially accepted". I feel it would be prudent to stick to that precedent. Philip -- Philip Paeps Senior Reality Engineer Ministry of Information