Why is her last name Zelenska and not Zelenskyy?
Assume it's some quirk of Ukrainian language but I can't find which quirk.
Why is her last name Zelenska and not Zelenskyy?
Assume it's some quirk of Ukrainian language but I can't find which quirk.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Slavic_naming_customs#Grammar
The surnames that originally are short (-ov, -ev, -in) or full (-iy/-oy/-yy) Slavic adjectives, have different forms depending on gender: male forms -ov, -ev, -in and -iy/-oy/-yy correspond to female forms -ova, -eva, -ina and -aya, respectively. For example, the wife of Борис Ельцин (Boris Yel'tsin) was Наина Ельцина (Naina Yel'tsina); the wife of Leo Tolstoy was Sophia Tolstaya, etc. All other, i.e. non-adjectival, surnames stay the same for both genders (including surnames ending with -енко (-yenko), -ич (-ich) etc.), unlike in many West Slavic languages, where the non-adjectival surname of men corresponds to derivative feminine adjectival surname (Novák → Nováková). Note the difference between patronymics and surnames ending with -ich: surnames are the same for males and females, but patronymics are gender-dependent (for example, Ivan Petrovich Mirovich and Anna Petrovna Mirovich)
In some surnames the ending changes depending on the sex of the person. For example Zelenskyy (masculine) - Zelenska(feminine), Zaluzhnyi (masculine) - Zaluzhna(feminine), Bobrov(masculine) - Bobrova(feminine). But it doesn't change in other surnames like Zalizniak, Patrushevych, etc.
Sorry, but I can't provide a better explanation right now
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