What should "Borodinsky" bread really be called in English? This
subject comes up occasionally, and there are actually three possible
choices for the English name, although only one possiblity exists in
Russian. These are the three possible choices in English and the
reasons for each.

1. Borodin bread.
One of the theories of this bread's origin is that it was first
invented by the composer/chemist Borodin, during a trip to Italy. This
has been disputed on the theory that Italy does not have rye breads and
that he'd be unlikely to be thinking about that during a trip to Italy.

2. Borodino bread.
Another theory is that the bread is named after the famous village of
Borodino, where a great battle between Napoleon and Kutuzov was fought
in 1812.

3. Borodinsky bread.
This uses the Russian adjectival suffix in English. The Russian word
"Borodinsky" is ambiguous, since it could be derived either from the
surname Borodin or the place-name Borodino. The problem here is that
the normal English adjective would not use the -sky suffix, but would
be identical to either the noun Borodin or Borodino.

In other words, the Russian term can maintain the useful ambiguity, but
the best sounding English term must make it explicit that you subscribe
to Theory #1 or Theory #2. If you speak English, but absolutely refuse
to choose between these two theories, your only choice is to copy the
Russian term, using the adjectival suffix that doesn't exactly fit in
English.

I am on record for preferring more than one of the above choices. The
real answer is that we will only be able to decide when we know which
of the two theories is really correct.

In other words, the jury is still out, but I'm keeping my eye open for
more information.

Ron