You Say Beijing, I Say Beijing: Who’s Right, Williams or Costas?

So, we come to find out, and if you’ve been listening closely you may have heard it, that the pronunciation of the host city of the XXIX Olympiad hasn’t been consistent on NBC. Nightly News anchor Brian Williams calls is Bay-jing. But Bob Costas and Meredith Vieira and others are calling it Bay-zhing.

So which is it?

Williams is right, if you talk to experts in the Chinese language.

Kaiser Kuo, who put together an online guide for journalists covering the Olympics, writes, “For you mousse-coiffed, Mr. Gravitas TV anchor types and you sotto voce public radio types, please oh please stop saying ‘Bay-zheeng.’