The capital of Cyprus is known to all Russian speakers as Nicosia. Similarly, it was called Nicosia in English for many years.
However, in recent years, this toponym (Nicosia) as the name of the capital of Cyprus has become less and less common. About five years ago, the name started to be replaced on all the signs on the island. According to rumors, this change was driven by some policy of the European Union, which aimed to replace the Latinized names of geographical locations in different countries with names closer in sound to their original pronunciation in the local language, rather than names imposed by colonial governments, for example.
The fact is, in Greek, the city is called Λευκωσία, which is pronounced Lefkosia, not Nicosia. Turkish Cypriots call it Lefkoşa in Turkish (pronounced Lefkosha). The name means “White City.” For example, Belarus in Greek has the same linguistic roots and is pronounced Lefkorossia, which literally means “White Russia.”
On road signs, all names are given in two languages—Greek and English. When I first moved to the island, the signs said Nicosia, but a few years ago, when the changes started being implemented, they initially showed dual names: Lefkosia (Nicosia), Lemesos (Limassol). Gradually, the older names were phased out everywhere.
Now, even many online maps show Lefkosia instead of Nicosia.
Interestingly, in official documents in English, the Greek Cypriots themselves can’t seem to decide how to write it—sometimes it’s Lefkosia, sometimes Nicosia. However, the postal service doesn’t mind how you address something—parcels and letters arrive in both “cities” just fine. 😉
What’s interesting is that there’s no such trend toward change in the Russian language. And even when Lefkosia finally becomes the standard in English, the city will most likely still be called Nicosia (Никосия) in Russian.
There are plenty of examples of this: we still call Beijing Pekin (Пекин) in Russian. And English speakers call Moscow Moscow, which is close but still sounds a bit different from Russian Moskva (Москва).
[…] Cyprus, there are only a few major cities. The capital, Nicosia (recently more often referred to as Lefkosia, in the Greek manner), is located in the center of the island and is divided in half by the border […]