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Tblisi's a lot older than that
I call it that too, but apparently it's Tbilisi now. I wonder when that change happened, my Russian lessons were in the 1980s. It was Tpilisi until 1936, and Tiflis to foreigners.
gbj_tester-
I call it that too, but apparently it's Tbilisi now. I wonder when that change happened, my Russian lessons were in the 1980s. It was Tpilisi until 1936, and Tiflis to foreigners.
Well, according to Wikipedia the change happened in 1936:
Until 1936, the name of the city in English and most other languages was Tiflis, while the Georgian name was ტფილისი (Tpilisi).[8]
On 17 August 1936, by order of the Soviet leadership, the official Russian names of various cities were modified to more closely match the local language. In addition, the Georgian-language form T′pilisi was modernized on the basis of a proposal by Georgian linguists; the ancient Georgian component ტფილი (tpili, "warm") was replaced by the newer თბილი (t′bili).[8] This form was the basis for a new official Russian name (Тбилиси Tbilisi). Most other languages have subsequently adopted the new name form, but some language such as Turkish, Persian, Greek, and German have retained a variation of Tiflis.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tbilisi
The reason appears to be the replacement of the older form of 'warm' with the newer one. From this article, it also seems that the name never was 'Tblisi'--that name doesn't even occur on the page. Perhaps it's a persistent spelling mistake, or the 'i' gets elided so people miss it, or it's a former Russian form?
Oliver Schick
Pffft, Tblisi's a lot older than that. :)