Thread: Ельцин или Ельцын?

I have seen both Борис Ельцин and Борис Ельцын. Which is it?

I did a Google search on it

Ельцин came up 300,000+ times

Ельцын came up 744 times.

So is Ельцын a typo, or are they both acceptable spellings, and Ельцин is more popular?

Originally Posted by TATY

So is Ельцын a typo, or are they both acceptable spellings, and Ельцин is more popular?

Ельцин is correct.

Originally Posted by TATY

So is Ельцын a typo, or are they both acceptable spellings, and Ельцин is more popular?

the latter

the former
Цы is only found in a couple of words (цыган, цыплёнок, цыпочки, цыкнуть, цыц). In all other cases it's ци.

Originally Posted by pisces

the former
Цы is only found in a couple of words (цыган, цыплёнок, цыпочки, цыкнуть, цыц). In all other cases it's ци.

Yes but this is a name. Like in English people can spell the same name differently, like Clark / Clarke.

Though Ельцин is right and we spell it like this, my teacher of Russian told us that Ельцын would be more correct according to grammar rules

The problem is that И after Ц is pronounced Ы. Therefore you say it as if it were spelled Ельцын but it isn't. People who are not up on their spelling rules would spell it with Ы. They'd be wrong in spelling but right in pronunciation.

А братцы, не забудьте, что ЦЫ is found all over the place - in the plural of any word whose nominative ends in -ЕЦ. А как насчёт -ИЦА: красавица?

The latter

You can meet both Птицын and Птицин, Спицын and Спицин, Голицын - in last names.

Originally Posted by Indra

The latter

You can meet both Птицын and Птицин, Спицын and Спицин, Голицын - in last names.

But Boris spells his name with the -ин right?

Right.