Suwarrow or Suvarov?

Suvarov?

Although Tom Neale’s atoll appears on most maps as Suwar row, and is pronounced by many people “Sue-worrow”, its correct pronunciation is “Suvarov”. The atoll was discovered in 1814 by Captain Lazarev of the Russian ship “Suvarov”, which bore the name of a famous Russian general. In those days and for a

long time afterwards, English

speaking people were not as familiar with Russian names as they are now, and Russian “v’s” were generally transliterated as “w’s”. Polish “v’s” came out the same way—as in “Warsaw”, which the French know more accurately as Varsovie.

In Tom Neale’s book, Suwar row is always spelt Suvarov. —

RL.