Marylebone (pronunciation)

The proper noun Marylebone (the name of a district in London, including a railway station) is pronounced in different ways. The most common of the British pronunciations listed in LPD is IPA: /ˈmær ə lə bən/ ('MARRy-le-ben', with the last two '-e-'s very indeterminate [they are schwas]). A common variant is to say the last syllable as it looks, like the part of the body: 'bone' (IPA: /ˈmær ə lə bəʊn/). Some speakers make that influence the first '-e-' to sound more like the '-i-' in 'it'; others elide that syllable altogether, so that the word sounds like 'MARRy-bone' (IPA: /ˈmær ɪ bəʊn/). The final variant recorded in British English is to lengthen the '-a-' sound so that it is like that in 'car': IPA: /ˈmɑː^rlə bəʊn/ ('MAHL-eb-en').

This goes to show that the word does not have a single recognized pronunciation - although some speakers may use it as a marker of social class, and form adverse judgments of those who use other pronunciations. Most British speakers, however, regard the usual American rendering as incorrect: in US English, the first syllable is like the girl's name 'Mary' and the rest also as written: IPA: /ˈmeɪr ə lə bəʊn/.

The American pronunciation is historically appropriate: the name derives from that of a church dedicated to St Mary, which - it is said - was nicknamed 'le bon' - ~ 'the good', in Norman French, to distinguish it from many other churches. This derivation, however, is a false 'folk' etymology: the first element is indeed that of a church dedicated to the mother of Jesus, but the last element is 'bourne', meaning '[by or at the] stream'