National Institute of Korean Language: Both "Kiyeop" and "Kiiyu" Are Acceptable

Announcement of the Review Results for Fourteen Ukrainian Place Names in Korean Romanization

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The National Institute of the Korean Language and the Korea Newspaper and Broadcasting Editors Association held a joint committee on foreign language review for government and media from the 7th for four days, and on the 11th announced that they reviewed fourteen Korean transliteration proposals for Ukrainian place names. The two organizations allowed the previously conventionally used Russian-style transliterations such as 'Kiyev (the capital of Ukraine)' and 'Lviv (a city in western Ukraine)' to be written as 'Kiiyu' and 'Leubiu', respectively. Additionally, 'Azov Sea' was changed to 'Azou Sea', 'Boryspil International Airport' to 'Boryspil International Airport', 'Kharkiv' to 'Kharkiu', and 'Donets River' to 'Siverskyi Donets River'. The two organizations also added new Ukrainian transliterations or revised Russian transliterations into Ukrainian ones, including 'Berdiansk', 'Boryspil', 'Dnipro', 'Khmelnytskyi', 'Kramatorsk', 'Lutsk', 'Odesa', and 'Vinnytsia'. The National Institute of the Korean Language explained, "We reviewed the proposals considering detailed guidelines that respect our society's transliteration practices and the local pronunciation. However, since many people have long used transliterations like 'Kiyev' and 'Lviv', immediately replacing them could cause confusion in language use, so for the time being, the new transliterations can be used alongside the existing ones."