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Glottal stop

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IPA – number 113
IPA – text ʔ
IPA – image Image:Xsampa-questionmark.png
Entity ʔ
X-SAMPA ?
Kirshenbaum ?
Sound sample 

The glottal stop or voiceless glottal plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ʔ. The glottal stop is the sound made when the vocal cords are pressed together to stop the flow of air and then released, and is the sound in the middle of the interjection uh-oh.

Contents

[edit] Features

Features of the glottal stop:

[edit] Occurrence

[edit] In English

There are few words in English that universally contain a glottal stop. The best known examples are the interjections "uh-oh" (sometimes spelled "oh-oh") and "uh-uh".

However, in many varieties of English, glottal stop is an allophone of /t/ in final position, as in habit or pat. In such accents as Cockney and Estuary English, the glottal stop is also an allophone of /t/ in medial position, as in Batman, bottle, and water. In East Anglian varieties, glottal-stop realisations of /t/ can be found in word-initial position, if /t/ is in an unstressed syllable (so is often found in the words to, today, tomorrow) and is not in tone group–initial position. So, in "I'm going to town tomorrow", the /t/ in to and tomorrow is readily realised as a glottal stop. In other dialects, a /t/ followed by a syllabic /n/ is often replaced by a glottal stop, as for example in button or fatten. (This may be obscured if the speaker consciously articulates consonants for clarity.)

In many Yorkshire accents, a glottalized /t/ is used as a replacement of the word "the", as shown in the beginning of the Spanish Inquisition sketch by Monty Python, in which Graham Chapman states "There's trouble at t' mill!", and as when John Cleese exclaims "I'm going down t'market."

The glottal stop may be an allophone of /k/: at the ends of words (for example, in the discourse marker like); medially (for example, [lʌʔɪ] in Michael Palin's "You lucky bastard!" in Monty Python's Life of Brian); and at the beginnings of words that follow words ending in vowel sounds (for example, "You can open the door now").

Glottal stops are also found in some forms of African-American Vernacular English: for example, the t in satin.

Finally, English acquires, usually from languages in which the glottal stop is a phoneme, loanwords in which glottal stops are part of the foreign pronunciation. For example, the Hawaiian word ‘a‘ā is used by geologists to specify lava that is relatively thick, chunky, and rough. The Hawaiian spelling indicates the two glottal stops in the word; but the most widely used English spelling, aa, does not (Pukui and Elbert 1986:2, 389). Loans often retain aspects of their foreign pronunciation until they become fully nativized in the adoptive language.

[edit] In other languages

  • Arabic: ألله [ʔɑlˁlˁɑːh], "God"
  • Burmese: ka [kʰaʔ], "draw off"
  • Chamoru: halu'u [həluʔu], "shark"
  • Czech: používat [po.ʔuʒiːvat], "to use"
  • Dutch: beamen [bɛʔɑmən], "to endorse"
  • Finnish: tienesteillä [ˈtienʔesteillæ], "with road blockages"
  • French: les hérissons [le ʔeʁisɔ̃], "the hedgehogs"
  • German (northern dialects): Beamter [bəˈʔamtɐ], "civil servant"
  • Guaraní: avañe [aʋaɲẽˈʔẽ], "Guaraní"
  • Hawaiian: eleele [ˡʔɛ.lɛˡʔɛ.lɛ], "black"
  • Hebrew: עִבְרִית‎ [ʔivˈʁit], "Hebrew"
  • Lojban: a'o [ʔaho], "hope".
  • Persian: عمل [??], "??"
  • Seri: he [ʔɛ], "I"
  • Tongan: tuʻu [tuʔu], "stand"
  • Tahitian: puaʻa [puaʔa], "pig"
  • Võro: piniq [ˈpinʲiʔ], "dogs"

[edit] See also

  Consonants (List, table) See also: IPA, Vowels  
Pulmonics Bilabial Lab'den. Dental Alveolar Postalv. Retroflex Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyn. Epiglottal Glottal Non-pulmonics and other symbols
Nasals m ɱ n ɳ ɲ ŋ ɴ Clicks  ʘ ǀ ǃ ǂ ǁ
Plosives p b t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ Implo­­sives  ɓ ɗ ʄ ɠ ʛ
Fricatives ɸ β f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ ʜ ʢ h ɦ Ejec­­tives 
Approximants β̞ ʋ ɹ ɻ j ɰ Other laterals  ɺ ɫ
Trills ʙ r ʀ Co-articulated approximants  ʍ w ɥ
Flaps & Taps ѵ̟ ѵ ɾ ɽ Co-articulated fricatives  ɕ ʑ ɧ
Lat. Fricatives ɬ ɮ Affricates  ʦ ʣ ʧ ʤ
Lat. Appr'mants l ɭ ʎ ʟ Co-articulated stops  k͡p ɡ͡b ŋ͡m
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Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a voiced consonant. Shaded areas denote pulmonic articulations judged impossible.
ca:Oclusiva glotal sorda

cs:Ráz da:Glottalt lukke de:Stimmloser glottaler Plosiv fr:Coup de glotte it:Colpo di glottide nl:Glottisslag ja:声門破裂音 no:Glottal plosiv pl:Zwarcie krtaniowe ru:Гортанная смычка fi:Glottaaliklusiili sv:Glottal klusil vls:Glottisslag

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