Etymology

From German Kwajalein, from Marshallese Kuwajleen.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkwɑːdʒəlɨn/

Much less common pronunciations include /ˈkwɑːdʒəˌliːn/, /ˈkwɑːdʒəˌleɪn/ or /ˈkwɑːdʒəˌlaɪn/. These are all very scarce among the atoll's English-speaking residents. American English is usually spoken by Kwajalein island's American expatriate population, which has the father-bother merger; for accents without this merger (including Received Pronunciation), /ˈkwɒdʒəlɨn/ is a possible realization. This is not technically wrong, because the aforementioned father-bother merger makes this pronunciation indistinguishable from /ˈkwɑːdʒəlɨn/. Indeed, the name of Kwajalein island's primary hotel, the Kwaj Lodge, is a word play on Kwaj and lodge rhyming.