As it is correct: Sankt Petersburg or Saint Petersburg. Toponym spelling in English

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:40

One of the most common mistakes in English writing is made all the time by Petersburgers when describing their city or indicating the address in letters. The word "St. Petersburg" in English is written both with and without a hyphen, with a mixture of transcription and transliteration and other errors that are made due to various factors. Let's figure out how to write "St. Petersburg" in English.

Common spelling of toponym

First you need to determine why and how to spell Sankt Petersburg or Saint Petersburg.

St. Petersburg is one of the most attractive cities for tourists from other countries. It is famous for its palaces, theaters, gardens, vibrant history and culture. Tourists flock to it from all over the world, the city center is gradually becoming multilingual, inCafes are increasingly finding menus in English. After a wonderful trip to the northern capital of Russia, enthusiastic foreigners leave a huge number of reviews on travel sites. Scrolling through them, you can see that they do not use a hyphen to write the word "St. Petersburg" in the international language of communication, but rather write these two words with a space, while shortening the first one.

In American, Australian and British geographical atlases there are only two names for St. Petersburg, these are "St. Petersburg" or "Saint Petersburg". Sankt Petersburg, as has already been correctly noted, the option is wrong. The fact is that in English there is no widespread use of hyphens and dashes. Therefore, the name of the city in this case is usually written with a space.

For example, the English word New York in Russian will be written as "New York" with a hyphen, New Hampshire - as "New Hampshire", New Jersey - as "New Jersey", Rhode Island becomes Russian "Rhode Island", and the famous Los Angeles - in "Los Angeles".

If we consider examples of translations of city names from Russian into English, then they can see Rostov-on-Don (Rostov-on-Don), in which hyphens are left because of the literal translation. Ulan-Ude is also customary to write with a hyphen (Ulan-Ude), like Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky (Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky).

Transcription and transliteration

Most often, the transliteration technique is used to designate the names of cities and countries, andlater toponyms can acquire other forms in speech, over time.

So, which is correct: Sankt Peterburg or Saint Petersburg? In the first case, transliteration techniques were used, when the name is written letter by letter, in accordance with the alphabet. This can also be called transcription, since this word is pronounced similarly.

In general, transliteration is a linguistic method of transferring characters from one language to another using certain symbols of the alphabet, equal in meaning. This is a very accurate transfer of names, not allowing the addition of additional characters to clarify the sounds. The transcription conveys the pronunciation of the name, it is customary to add additional language signs for a more accurate sound clarification.

Title translation

Proper names are never translated, a mixed method of transliteration and transcription is used to transfer the name. A funny fact is that the very name of the city of St. Petersburg is no longer primordially Russian, and although it was created in honor of St. Peter (St Petersburg - the city of St. Peter), foreign experts invited by Peter the Great recorded and voiced in their own way. As a result, the name stuck in the German version. Therefore, it is correct to write St Petersburg or Saint Petersburg in English, Sankt Petersburg as a German variant remains for the Germans.

Such an interesting language paradox happened tothe name of this city.

Conclusion

And while other Russian cities are translated into English while retaining the hyphen, St. Petersburg is a big exception. It is incorrect to write the name of this city in Latin with a hyphen.

There are two common names for a Russian city, St Petersburg and Saint Petersburg. One of them with an abbreviated name, the second is written in full. The fact is that for the word saint (saint) in English, the abbreviation st is widespread, which means that the first spelling will be more favorable for the British, Americans, Australians and other native speakers of this foreign language.

As correct, Sankt Petersburg or Saint Petersburg, you just need to remember. To facilitate memorization, you can pay attention to the fact that in the first version the first word is transcribed, and the second is translated into another language. So it's definitely a misspelling.