Are you a stickler for pronunciation? Well, I am. Yesterday we were in a time crunch. There was a late morning bus accident on US Highway 64 at Edinburgh Drive in Cary. Pam Saulsby went on the air with breaking news and pronounced Edinburgh like this: 'ED-un-berg.
I questioned this pronunciation. The street in the MacGregor Downs neighborhood was named for the capital of Scotland which is pronounced 'ED-un-'BURR-oh. That's the way I've always pronounced it.
The police scanners were mixed with some dispatchers pronouncing it one way and others the other way. We needed to get a definitive answer for the newscast at noon. We didn't have much time.
I called Susan Moran with the Town of Cary and left a message asking for the town's official pronunciation. In the meantime I called two librarians. They were both confident that the local pronunciation was ED-un-berg. 30 seconds before the noon news I received an email from Susan. It read "BERG." That's all I needed. We got it right at noon.
This is a problem we encounter every day with names of people and places. We rely heavily on viewers to help us out. Please free free to call us any time to correct a pronunciation. We really appreciate your help.
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