Temporary - temporarily (pronunciation)

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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 ('TEMP-or-air-y', IPA: /ˈtɛmp ər ər ɪ/. Some American speakers (and British speakers who wish to emphasize the spelling) stress the third syllable: 'temp-er-AIR-y', 'TEMP-or-AIR-y', IPA: /ˈtɛmp ər ˌer ɪ/.
    • A realization with three syllables, 'TEMP-or-y', {IPA|ˈtɛmp ə rɪ}} 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: /ˈtɛmp 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).