Ukraine City Names

[Albert]

In other threads, there have been discussions of the spelling of various cities in Ukraine.

To understand why there is confusion, you must understand the background.  In soviet times, there was a concerted effort to Russify all the colonies.  As part of this, the populaces were forced to study the Russian language (if they wanted to be employed in productive work).  Similarly, documents had to have the Russian spelling used.

Russian spelling, in turn, had English transliterations.

After the breakup of the soviet union, the former colonies wanted to revert to the local names and spellings in their own languages (with the corresponding English transliterations.)

Thus, many Ukrainian cities now have Ukrainian names which are different (some only slightly so) than their Russian spellings.  Whether or not a person uses or wants to use the proper Ukrainian name depends mostly on their ethnic background or the ethnic background of the woman they are married to.

Many persons in Ukraine identify strongly with Russia and are reluctant to use the proper spellings.

This reluctance is usually not found outside the country itself.  For instance, most of us know that for a hundred years or more the capital of China was not spelled (by English writers) as it is now.  But once the Chinese government asked that the Beijing spelling be used, it is used.

Similarly, Bombay now has a spelling that is desired by the natives and not forced on by a colonial power.

However, with Ukraine, acceptance inside the country will be slow because of so many people yearning for Russia.

The current names and populations of the largest cities in Ukraine are as follows:

Kyiv                    2,660,401
Charkiv                1,464,740
Dnipropetrovsk     1,056,497
Odesa                  1,077,131
Doneck                  999,975
Zaporizzija             799,348
Lviv                       733,728
Kryvyj Rih              696,667
Mykolaiv                509,011
Mariupol                482,440
Luhansk

[Gator]

Albert,

You can be helpful.  And texas Boar would probably give you an "A" if you were in his class.

The differences really confused me when I attempted to negotiate the train station on my own.  I had learned the Russian alphabet and was looking for "Kharkov" not "Charkiv" in Ukrainian alphabet (exact except for some vowels).  The spelling used at the train station was so different from the spelling in my head.  I could not find it and had to start asking questions.  It took a while.

[Jumper]

gator-
sure to complicate things --lol
 they speak russian day to day in most of eastern ukraine , and certainly in kharkov, kiev, or dnepro-

but the official language being Ukrainian, means the street signs,
 train station postings etc will be writtin in Ukranian.
certainly similar,
 but sometimes enough different to throw a  person non fluent ,
like most of us, off a bit.