Georgiy Gongadze - Name Spelling Disambiguation

Name Spelling Disambiguation

Note that the pronunciation and sometimes spelling of Gongadze's name may differ following the phonetics of different languages. The original Georgian name, pronounced Georgi Gongadze in Georgian, became Георгій Гонгадзе (Heorhiy Honhadze) and sometimes Георгій or Ґія Ґонґадзе (Heorhiy or Giia Gongadze) in Ukrainian, and Георгий Гонгадзе (Georgiy Gongadze) in Russian. Ukrainian officials often refer to him as Heorhiy Honhadze, as per the pronunciation of the letter Г (H) in Ukrainian, but not of the letter Ґ (G). This pronunciation is also used in the common dialect of southern Russia.

After a recent linguistic reform, Ukrainians have recovered the letter Ґ (Ghe with upturn) for G, a letter which had been banned during the Soviet Union. The letter Ґ, which is now used for G and just named "Ghe" in Ukrainian, was re-introduced after the independence of Ukraine, instead of the letter Г (used for G and named "Ghe" in Russian, but now named "He" and used for H in Ukrainian). It had been banned by the Soviet linguistic reform of 1933 as being "non-Ukrainian" (possibly because the Ukrainian letter followed more closely the model of the Gamma letter of the Greek Alphabet, by not adopting the very distinctive letterform of the Russian letter "Ghe" used in cursive and italic styles).

Hence the more correct spelling of Gongadze's last name in Ukrainian (Ґонґадзе), according to the Georgian pronunciation. Some sources also refer to him as Georgy Gongadze.