When Russia initially invaded Ukraine last week, one of its primary targets was the country’s capital and most populous city—which most English-language news outlets used to call “Kiev.” In recent reports, however, it’s much more common to see or hear “Kyiv.” Here’s the history behind the switch.

自俄罗斯上周开始对乌克兰展开军事行动以来，俄罗斯的主要目标之一就是乌克兰的首都，也是乌克兰人口最多的城市-基辅（过去绝大多数英语新闻机构称之为“Kiev”）。在最近的报道中，我们更多看见或听见的词却是“Kyiv”。为什么乌克兰的首都从Kiev变成了Kyiv？

As The Guardian explains, Russian and Ukrainian have a lot in common: They’re both east Slavonic languages that use versions of the Cyrillic alphabet. But Ukrainian evolved in its own direction, borrowing from Polish and originating certain pronunciations, letters, and vocabulary. Plenty of Ukrainian words are similar to their Russian counterparts, and the name of Ukraine’s capital city is one of them. In Ukrainian, it’s Київ, which gets Latinized as Kyiv. In Russian, it’s Киев—or, in English, Kiev.

根据《卫报》的解释，俄罗斯和乌克兰之间有着许多的共同点：他们都说使用西里尔字母的东斯拉夫语。但是，乌兰克通过借鉴波兰语并创造了某些发音、字母和词汇而演变出了自己的语言版本。大量乌克兰语和俄语类似，而乌克兰首都的名字就是其中之一。在乌克兰语中，首都的名字为Київ，拉丁化后就变成了Kyiv。在俄语中，乌克兰的首都名字为Киев，也就是英语Kiev。

When the Soviet Union controlled the area during the 20th century, it systemically tried to quell Ukrainian culture in favor of Russian culture—a process known as Russification, with origins dating back to the 19th century. This included promoting Russian over Ukrainian language, which is essentially how Kiev became more popular than Kyiv among international audiences. As the Soviet Union unraveled in 1991, Ukraine declared its independence and the country has been working to supplant Kiev with Kyiv ever since.

当前苏联在20世纪控制着这一地区时，前苏联系统性的尝试挤压乌克兰文化并大力推广俄罗斯文化-这一过程被称为俄罗斯化，其可以追溯至19世纪。具体的过程包括推广俄语而非乌克兰语，这也是为什么Kiev要比Kyiv在国际社会上更为人熟知的原因。当前苏联在1991年解体后，乌克兰宣布独立并致力于将首都的名字改回Kyiv。

In 1995, as The Independent reports, the government made Kyiv the official Latinized name for the city; and in 2018, Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs kick started a campaign called #KyivNotKiev to encourage the rest of the world to finally make the change official, too. The United States Board on Geographic Names did so in June 2019, and the media has gradually followed suit.

1995年，如《独立报》所报道，乌克兰政府宣布Kyiv是首都正式的拉丁语名字。在2018年，乌克兰外交部启动了一项叫做“是Kyiv而不是Kiev”的活动以鼓励世界其他国家将其首都名称正式改为Kyiv。美国地名委员会于2019年进行了正式的变更，而新闻媒体也逐渐开始效仿。

Using Kyiv as the standard spelling is one small way that the world can recognize and validate Ukraine’s independence from Russia, both culturally and politically. It’s the same reason we now say “Ukraine,” rather than “the Ukraine.” The word Ukraine is believed to derive from an old Slavic term for borderland, so the Ukraine loosely translates to the borderland(s), which could give the impression that Ukraine is one peripheral piece of a larger territory—not its own entity.

使用Kyiv作为标准的拼法是一个让世界从文化和政治上承认乌克兰从俄罗斯独立的一个小小举动。而我们现在说“Ukraine”而不是“the Ukraine”，也是同样的道理。Ukraine这个词据称来自于古老的斯拉夫语-“边界”，因此乌克兰大致相当于是“边界”的意思，这可能会让人觉得乌克兰是一片更大的领土的边缘-而非是一个独立的整体。

原文来源：Mental Floss

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