(FORTUNE Magazine) – Watching the national drama unfold in Russia, one question burns in TV viewers' minds: Why do Moscow correspondents say Mos-coe (as in "Roscoe") and not Mos-cow, as most Americans pronounce it? Neither is authentic; the Russian word is Moskva. "It has nothing to do with Russian," says William Mahota, who teaches Russian at Yale. "And it sounds artificial to say Mos-coe, because most Americans don't speak that way." Tell that to NBC Moscow bureau chief Magda Walter. "I shudder when I hear Mos-cow," she sniffs. "Mos-coe is the correct way to say it."

"I studied Russian for years, and I used to say Mos-cow," says CNN's bureau chief, Jill Dougherty. "But I had to retrain myself because Mos-coe is the accepted pronunciation at CNN. Maybe it's because the 'cow' sounds kind of lazy, sloppy."

"I feel affected saying Mos-coe," says National Public Radio's new Moscow correspondent, Michele Kelemen. "When I worked at Voice of America they made me say Mos-coe on the air. When I took the job at NPR I thought I could switch to the American pronunciation, Mos-cow. But they insist on Mos-coe. My friends make fun of me."

VOA, the pronunciation authority of broadcasting, mandates Mos-coe because that's what Webster's New Geographical Dictionary suggests, says Jim Tedder, the network's pronunciation czar. Wrong: We found the dictionary, and it recommends "Mos-cow." "We strive to base our pronunciations on actual pronunciation in America," says Deanna Chiasson, one of the dictionary's editors. "Mos-cow is the more common pronunciation, and that's why we have it entered first." So why do journalists insist on Mos-coe? NPR's Anne Garrels, a Moscow veteran, chuckles and offers her explanation: "We're all pretentious."

--Erin Kelly

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