Temporary - temporarily (pronunciation)

Temporary and temporarily (like their cognates contemporary and contemporarily) can present problems in pronunciation.

• Temporary is written with four syllables, -tem- + -por- + -ar- + -y.
  • In British RP, careful speakers, speaking carefully, realize all four, with the stress on the first (IPA: /ˈtÉ›mp É™r É™r ɪ/. Some American speakers (and British speakers who wish to emphasize the spelling) stress the third syllable: 'temp-er-AIR-y', /ËŒtÉ›mp É™r ˈer ɪɪ/.
  • A realization with three syllables, 'TEMP-or-y', {IPA|ˈtÉ›mp É™r ɪ}} is also common, even in formal educational contexts.
  • In careless, rushed or casual colloquial speech, this is often further reduced to two syllables: 'TEMP-ry', {IPA|ˈtÉ›mp rɪ}}.
    • The same, broadly, is true of the adverb temporarily - with an extra final syllable -ly in all cases.

You may also want to see AWE's articles about

its meaning and usage, at contemporaneous - contemporary;

another confusion, at temporal - temporary;

its spelling, which can give difficulty, at Temporary - Contemporary (spelling).