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Kiev
editHi As this is the English Wikipedia, we use the most common spelling found in English reliable sources. You'd have to get the article on Kiev changed first. Doug Weller talk 14:15, 13 February 2018 (UTC)
Hi!
Thank you for your opinion. Notably, U.S. Department of State refers to the capital of Ukraine as to Kyiv, not Kiev click Similarly does U.K. Ministry of Foreign Affairs click Australia click Canada Click World Bank click and the UN click
Do you think these sources are reliable and represent the official stand of the majority of the English speaking national and supernational bodies?Salnykov (talk) 15:16, 13 February 2018 (UTC)salnykov
- I really have no idea. As I said, you need to change the Kiev article before you change the name elsewhere. Start a new section at the bottom of Talk:Kiev - ideally by following the instrucions at WP:RM#CM. I don't care how it's spelled so long as our policies are followed. Doug Weller talk 16:38, 13 February 2018 (UTC)
- The thing is national and supernational bodies have no power over the English language. This is something about English that is very hard for people who are native speakers of many other languages to understand. Those bodies can only control usage by their own publications. General English language usage (such as seen in the mainstream press) is still Kiev. Basically, telling a native English speaker he should use the language government bodies use is likely to make him laugh in your face. --Khajidha (talk) 17:43, 13 February 2018 (UTC)
- Khajidha, thank you for your opinion. I think the situation is no different from the story of Indian cities, such as Bangalore, Bombay and Madras changing their names to decouple from the colonial identity. If this is recognized with Bengaluru, Mumbai and Chennai, why the same principle should not apply to Kyiv?Salnykov (talk) 19:45, 13 February 2018 (UTC)
- You do realize that English is an official language of India? And that India has millions of native English spakers? Ukaine doesn't. The situations are not parallel. --Khajidha (talk) 19:59, 13 February 2018 (UTC)
- And you will notice that our article is still at Bangalore--Khajidha (talk) 20:01, 13 February 2018 (UTC)
- Well, what about a switch from Peking to Beijing. China does not have millions of native English speakers. Another example would be Estonian capital name change from Tallin to Tallinn after the end of Soviet occupation. Salnykov (talk) 20:06, 13 February 2018 (UTC)
- And there are dozens of others that didn't. English is inconsistent. Big surprise. It may change next year. It may change a century from now. It may never change. Why does it matter? We are speaking English, not Ukrainian. There is no reason they would have to match. I'm sure that Ukrainian does all sorts of weird things to the names of cities in my country. And I really don't care. If anything, this harping on about how English should change is likely to make such changes less likely. --Khajidha (talk) 20:41, 13 February 2018 (UTC)
- You do realize that English is an official language of India? And that India has millions of native English spakers? Ukaine doesn't. The situations are not parallel. --Khajidha (talk) 19:59, 13 February 2018 (UTC)