[tz] Kyiv

[Paul Eggert]

Random832 wrote:
> And anyway, the transliteration of Киев is Kiyev.

Oh! That's something else where there can be disagreement! Other Romanizations 
of the Russian Киев include Kijev, Kiyef, Kieff, Kijeff, Kiyeff. The 
Encyclopædia Britannica had "Kieff, Kiyeff, or Kiev" in its scholarly-but-dated 
1902 edition, whereas the popular and freshly-updated 1911 edition had "Kiev, 
Kieff, or Kiyeff".

There is similar disagreement for the Ukrainian Київ. "Kyiv" is the Ukrainian 
government's transliteration, codified in 1996. However, in non-governmental 
sources the и can be transliterated to y or ȳ or i, and the ї (U+0457 CYRILLIC 
SMALL LETTER YI) can be transliterated to ji, yi, or ï (U+00EF LATIN SMALL 
LETTER I WITH DIAERESIS), and I've probably missed some options.

To top it off, none of these Romanizations in English are at all close to the 
common pronunciation in Ukrainian, namely [ˈkɪjiu̯] (IPA), as there is nothing 
like an English "v" (or "f") in Ukrainian pronunciation. Instead, the 
pronunciation trails off with a demure "oo" sound in English, and "Kuiyu" is a 
much more-accurate Anglicization than any of the above. Here's the Wikipedia 
sound file, for those who would like to do as the Kuiyuvians do:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/Uk-Київ.ogg