The Old East Slavic name of the town was Мѣньскъ (i.e. Měnsk < Early Proto-Slavic or Late Indo-European Mēnĭskŭ), derived from a river name Měn (< Mēnŭ). The resulting[clarification needed] form of the name, Minsk (spelled either Минскъ or Мѣнскъ), was taken over both in Russian (modern spelling: Минск) and Polish (Mińsk), and under the influence of Russian this form also became official in Belarusian. The direct continuation of the name in Belarusian is Miensk (Менск, IPA: [ˈmʲɛnsk]), which some Belarusian-speakers continue to use as their preferred name for the city