A few years back I set out to locate the village from which my wife's father's family had emigrated. The story was that they had come from Teteeve in Russia. After much looking and a lot of luck I discovered Tetiev in Ukraine, an appropriately Jewish town, famous in a way for having been destroyed in a pogrom.
If Tetiev is pronounced "Teteeve", then (I reasoned) Kiev is pronounced "Keeve." Today this deduction was confirmed on television by various ambassadors to Ukraine.
Last night Stephen Colbert discussed with actor Liev Schreiber (of Ukrainian extraction) how to pronounce "Liev." The actor gave a two-syllable pronunciation, perhaps because he was born in California.
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