Is this construct unique to Lincoln? I can’t think of another word that uses it. Was it really supposed to be “oln” and we just slur it?
I’ve always heard it as Link-on – but he “o” is so soft it could be ah, uh, eh, or even “nnn”
I suppose it’s just slurred.
Pronunciation guides indicate that in Britain, it’s commonly pronounced as LIN-kun or LIN-k’n, while standard US pronunciation tends more towards LINK-in, but regional variations include such abominations as LEAN-kin and LANE-kin
It seems nobody’s pronouncing the second ‘L’ or saying ‘oln’.
Like -gry, there are only three words that end in -oln.
There is also apparently the word “boln” which is an alternate form of “bollen”, which is a synonym for “swollen”. Completely obsolete in English today; it’s from Middle English, and the most recent examples of it in writing I can find are from the 1600s.
It was apparently pronounced with the “L”, which makes sense, because it’s just the word “bollen” contracted to a single syllable. But again, this isn’t in the language anymore (unless someone wants it to make a comeback).
The Lincoln surname comes from the city of Lincoln in England, in Lincolnshire.
The name supposedly came from the Latin term Lindum Colōnia, which roughly translates to “outpost at the pool”. That over time was abbreviated to “Lincoln”.
I’d say the second vowel sound is a schwa. (And for what it’s worth, I’ve lived most of my life in the heart of Lincolnland.)
Malcolm is similar
That was the word I couldn’t think of!
Now that this has been answered, let’s tackle
libary
Febuary
and of course, the U.S. pronunciation of colonel.
Sorry, I only do libary on Wenesday.
I pronounce them like:
Lie-brer-rie
Feh-brew-wary
Maybe that’s my Seattle area accent. (We’re also infamous for pronouncing “egg” like “aig”, rhymes with “Craig”, same with “beg” or “keg” or “leg”.)
I pronounce it like “winds-day”.
Neat. The “-coln,” then, is a direct cognate of Köln, the city in Germany (“Cologne” in English and French) that was also a Colonia.
Wow, that is really cool. 
This is the kind of obscure, cool, weird crap that made me fall in love with the Straight Dope decades ago.
You might like either of my two favorite language podcasts, “Because Language” and “Lexicon Valley.”
I may check those out then. Thank you.
De nada.
Someone upthread mentioned “Malcolm” I think that’s relevant. It’s just hard to go right from the “l” sound (tongue tip on roof of mouth) to either the “m” (lips together) or the “n” (tongue covering roof of mouth), so we lose the l.
This happened to “Lincoln” when the intervening vowel (in “Colonia”) was dropped. I wonder if the ancestor of “Malcolm” had a vowel between the l and m? I’ll look it up now.
Yup:
“The name Malcolm originates from Scottish Gaelic, specifically from the name Máel Coluim, meaning “devotee of Saint Columba”.
—Google AI
From bestwordlist .com
There are 2 words ending with OLN
STOLN • stoln v. (Poetic) Obsolete form of stolen.
• STOLN adj. (Milton) stolen.
SWOLN • swoln adj. (Poetic) Obsolete form of swollen.
• SWELL v. to increase in size or volume.
There were 2 words ending with “-oln” but not anymore.
Poetic.
Kernel and Leftenant where always pronounced something like that, but at some point it was decided to use the French spelling. Colonel kept its pronounciation, but in the US Leiutenant dropped the ‘eff’ sound, following the new spelling.