Quote:
Originally Posted by PR_Glen
When i first read you saying that i thought you were full of shit. but going back in my mind and remembering pronunciations a little closer it really is annunciated with an f by any Russians I have spoken with or heard, but being a westerner my mind probably hears v instead. The distinction between the two is almost nothing, also why your language doesn't differentiate the two specifically with the alphabet, which is most likely why you are only hearing an F sound yourself. I think it stems back from the Soviet days. Nobody in the west would pronounce it Sofiet Union. The V is the most prominent consonant in that word. So we take that V and use it for anything else where you would use the "B" or what you would use for an F sound. B is also used as a v sound in spanish so there is also that distinction.
So essientially we can all be right here and are pretty much arguing semantics.
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I have no idea Canadians say it. I just quoted a native Ukrainian guy from Kiev - Zelensky. As about my post which you have quoted above, it's not really correct. I meant that Belorussians say "КЫеВ" (I have no idea how will you translate it to Canadian), while the Ukrainians from Kiev say it a Russian way. The say "КИИФ". Maybe because they are... ethical Russians?
And stop all these talks about the Ukraine as a different nation. For many centuries it was called Malorossia (Rossia means Russia in Russian) - it literally translates as a small Russia. Belorussia is also a Russian word. It means "White Russia". The Moscow Russia was called the Great Russia. So all those nations are Russian. They are different countries, but the people who live there are the same. They may hate each other, but genetically and ethnically the are the same people.