I'm here watching the New York City Marathon, and I wanted to show you a little bit of it.
The word 'marathon' begins with the M consonant sound. This first syllable is the stressed
syllable. Mar-, it has the AA as in BAT sound, but it goes directly into the R, and the R
takes over the vowel a bit. Mar-, mar-. Next is an unaccented syllable, the schwa.
Mara-, mara-. So, it should be lower in pitch and a little quieter. Mara-. mara-. Last,
the third syllable, has a secondary stress. Marathon, -thon, -thon, so it will have a
little shape to it. It begins with the unvoiced TH sound, where the tongue must come through
the teeth. Then the AH as in FATHER sound, and the N consonant sound. Marathon, marathon.