Glottal stop

A glottal stop or glottal plosive is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is Template:Angbr IPA.

As a result of the airflow in the glottis, the glottal vibration either stops or becomes irregular with a low rate and sudden drop in intensity.<ref name="umeda">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Features

Features of a glottal stop:

• It has no phonation at all, as there is no airflow through the glottis.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> It is voiceless, however, in the sense that it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords.

Writing

File:Bilingual road sign in squamish language 1a.jpg

Road sign in British Columbia showing the use of the digit ⟨7⟩ to represent Template:Nowrap in Squamish.

In the traditional romanization of many languages, such as Arabic, a glottal stop is transcribed with the apostrophe [[ʼ|Template:Angle bracket]] or the symbol [[ʾ|Template:Angbr]], which is the source of the IPA character Template:Angbr IPA. In many Polynesian languages that use the Latin alphabet, however, the glottal stop is written with a rotated apostrophe, Template:Angbr (called ʻokina in Hawaiian and Samoan), which is commonly used to transcribe the Arabic ayin as well (also Template:Angbr) and is the source of the IPA character for the voiced pharyngeal fricative Template:Angbr IPA. In Malay the glottal stop is represented by the letter Template:Angbr (at the end of words), in Võro and Maltese by Template:Angbr. Another way of writing the glottal stop is the saltillo Template:Angbr, used in languages such as Tlapanec and Rapa Nui.

Other scripts also have letters used for representing glottal stops, such as the Hebrew letter aleph Template:Angbr and the Cyrillic letter palochka Template:Angbr, used in several Caucasian languages. The Arabic script uses hamza Template:Angbr, which can appear both as a diacritic and as an independent letter (though not part of the alphabet). In Tundra Nenets, it is represented by the letters apostrophe Template:Angbr and double apostrophe Template:Angbr. In Japanese, glottal stops occur at the end of interjections of surprise or anger and are represented by the character Template:Angbr.

In the graphic representation of most Philippine languages, glottal stops have no consistent symbolization. In most cases, however, a word that begins with a vowel-letter (e.g. Tagalog {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, "dog") is always pronounced with an unrepresented glottal stop before that vowel (as in Modern German and Hausa). Some orthographies use a hyphen instead of the reverse apostrophe if the glottal stop occurs in the middle of the word (e.g. Tagalog {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, "love"; or Visayan {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, "night"). If it occurs in the end of a word, the last vowel can be written with a circumflex accent (known as the pakupyâ) if both a stress and a glottal stop occur in the final vowel (e.g. basâ, "wet") or a grave accent (known as the paiwà) if the glottal stop occurs at the final vowel, but the stress occurs at the penultimate syllable (e.g. batà, "child").<ref name="expr">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="nolasco">Template:CitationTemplate:Dead link</ref><ref name="tagalog">Template:Cite book</ref>

Some Canadian indigenous languages, especially some of the Salishan languages, have adopted the IPA letter Template:Angbr into their orthographies. In some of them, it occurs as a casing pair, [[glottal stop (letter)|Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr]].<ref>Template:Citation</ref> The digit Template:Angbr or a question mark is sometimes substituted for Template:Angbr, and is preferred in languages such as Squamish. SENĆOŦENTemplate:Spaced ndashwhose alphabet is mostly unique from other Salish languagesTemplate:Spaced ndashcontrastly uses the comma Template:Angle bracket to represent the glottal stop, though it is optional.

In 2015, two women in the Northwest Territories challenged the territorial government over its refusal to permit them to use the letter Template:Angbr in their daughters' names: Sahaiʔa, a Chipewyan name, and Sakaeʔah, a Slavey name (the two names are actually cognates). The territory argued that territorial and federal identity documents were unable to accommodate the character. The women registered the names with hyphens instead of the Template:Angbr, while continuing to challenge the policy.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In the Crow language, the glottal stop is written as a question mark Template:Angbr. The only instance of the glottal stop in Crow is as a question marker morpheme at the end of a sentence.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Use of the glottal stop is a distinct characteristic of the Southern Mainland Argyll dialects of Scottish Gaelic. In such a dialect, the standard Gaelic phrase {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("I speak Gaelic"), would be rendered {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.Template:Citation needed

In the Nawdm language of Ghana, the glottal stop is written ɦ, capital Ĥ.

In English

Replacement of /t/

In English, the glottal stop occurs as an open juncture (for example, between the vowel sounds in uh-oh!,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>) and allophonically in t-glottalization. In British English, the glottal stop is most familiar in the Cockney pronunciation of "butter" as "bu'er". Geordie English often uses glottal stops for t, k, and p, and has a unique form of glottalization. Additionally, there is the glottal stop as a null onset for English; in other words, it is the non-phonemic glottal stop occurring before isolated or initial vowels.

Often a glottal stop happens at the beginning of vowel phonation after a silence.<ref name = umeda/>

Although this segment is not a phoneme in English, it occurs phonetically in nearly all dialects of English, as an allophone of {{#invoke:IPA|main}} in the syllable coda. Speakers of Cockney, Scottish English and several other British dialects also pronounce an intervocalic {{#invoke:IPA|main}} between vowels as in city. In Received Pronunciation, a glottal stop is inserted before a tautosyllabic voiceless stop: stoTemplate:Hamzap, thaTemplate:Hamzat, knoTemplate:Hamzack, waTemplate:Hamzatch, also leaTemplate:Hamzap, soaTemplate:Hamzak, helTemplate:Hamzap, pinTemplate:Hamzach.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Kortlandt">Template:Citation</ref>

In American English, a "t" is usually not aspirated in syllables ending either in a vowel + "t", such as "cat" or "outside"; or in a "t" + unstressed vowel + "n", such as "mountain" or "Manhattan". This is referred to as a "held t" as the airflow is stopped by tongue at the ridge behind the teeth. However, there is a trend of younger speakers in the Mid-Atlantic states to replace the "held t" with a glottal stop, so that "Manhattan" sounds like "Man-haʔ-in" or "Clinton" like "Cli(n)ʔ-in", where "ʔ" is the glottal stop. This may have crossed over from African American Vernacular English, particularly that of New York City.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Before initial vowels

Template:Redirect Most English speakers today often use a glottal stop before the initial vowel of words beginning with a vowel, particularly at the beginning of sentences or phrases or when a word is emphasized. This is also known as "hard attack".<ref name="glottal2" /> Traditionally in Received Pronunciation, "hard attack" was seen as a way to emphasize a word. Today, in British, American and other varieties of English, it is increasingly used not only to emphasize but also simply to separate two words, especially when the first word ends in a glottal stop.Template:Clarify<ref name="glottal1">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="glottal2">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="glottal3">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Occurrence in other languages

In many languages that do not allow a sequence of vowels, such as Persian, the glottal stop may be used epenthetically to prevent such a hiatus. There are intricate interactions between falling tone and the glottal stop in the histories of such languages as Danish (see stød), Cantonese and Thai.Template:Citation needed

In many languages, the unstressed intervocalic allophone of the glottal stop is a creaky-voiced glottal approximant. It is known to be contrastive in only one language, Gimi, in which it is the voiced equivalent of the stop.<ref>Template:SOWL</ref>

lītora jactētur odiīs Jūnōnis inīquae

The table below demonstrates how widely the sound of glottal stop is found among the world's spoken languages:

Family	Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Northwest Caucasian	Abkhaz		lang}}/ai	main}}	'no'	See Abkhaz phonology.
Northwest Caucasian	Adyghe		lang}}/'ė	main}}	'arm/hand'
Semitic	Arabic	Modern Standard<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>	lang}}/ʾaḡānī	main}}	'songs'	See Arabic phonology, Hamza.
		Levantine and Egyptian<ref name="armetr">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>	lang}}/ša''a	main}}	'apartment'	Corresponds to Template:IPAslink or Template:IPAslink in other dialects. See Levantine Arabic phonology and Egyptian Arabic phonology
		Fasi and Tlemcenian<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>	lang}}/'āl	main}}	'he said'	Corresponds to Template:IPAslink or Template:IPAslink in other dialects.
Kiranti	Bantawa		lang}}	main}}	'drinking water'
Bikol	Bikol		lang}}	main}}	'new'
Algonquian	Blackfoot		lang}} / Template:Transliteration	main}}	'duck'
Slavic	Bulgarian		lang}}/ŭ-ŭ	main}}	'nope'
Sino-Tibetan	Burmese		lang}}/mrac mya:	main}}	'rivers'
Philippine	Cebuano		lang}}	main}}	'believe'
Malayo-Polynesian	Chamorro		lang}}	main}}	'shark'
Sinitic	Chinese	Cantonese	lang}}/{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}	main}}	'love'	See Cantonese phonology.
		Wu	lang}}/{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}	main}}	'superb'
		Hokkien	lang}}/{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}	main}}	'to suit'
Polynesian	Cook Islands Māori		lang}}	main}}	'one'
Slavic	Czech		lang}}	main}}	'to use'	See Czech phonology.
Cushitic	Dahalo		lang}}	main}}	'water'	see Dahalo phonology
Germanic	Danish		lang}}	main}}	'hand'	One of the possible realizations of stød. Depending on the dialect and style of speech, it can be instead realized as laryngealisation of the preceding sound. See Danish phonology.
Germanic	Dutch<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>		lang}}	main}}	'to confirm'	See Dutch phonology.
Germanic	English	Multiple dialects	lang}}	main}} (emphatic "am")) or {{#invoke:IPA|main}}	'I'	Glottal stop before initial vowel at the start of a phrase. Elsewhere, optionally, to emphasize a word or separate it from the previous one.<ref name="glottal1"/><ref name="glottal2"/>
		RP	{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}	main}}	'uh-oh'
		American		Template:Audio-IPA
		Australian	{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}	{{#invoke:IPA|main}}	'cat'	Allophone of {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, /k/ or /p/. See glottalization, English phonology, and definite article reduction.
		GA
		Estuary		main}}
		Cockney<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>		main}}
		Scottish		main}}
		Some Northern England	lang}}	main}}	'the'
		Geordie	lang}}		'thank you'
		Geordie	lang}}		'people'
		RP<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> and GA	button	Template:Audio-IPA	'button'
Germanic	German	Northern	lang}}	main}}	'civil servant'	Generally all vowel onsets. See Standard German phonology.
Hmongic	Hmong		Template:Script / {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}	main}}	'two (2)'
Tupi-Guarani	Guaraní		lang}}	main}}	'Guaraní'	Occurs only between vowels.
Polynesian	Hawaiian<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>		lang}}	main}}	'black'	See Hawaiian phonology.
Semitic	Hebrew		lang}}/ma'amar	main}}	'article'	Often elided in casual speech. See Modern Hebrew phonology.
Germanic	Icelandic		lang}}	main}}	'but'	Only used according to emphasis, never occurring in minimal pairs.
Malayo-Polynesian	Iloko		lang}}	main}}	'bland tasting'	Hyphen when occurring within the word.
Malayo-Polynesian	Indonesian		lang}}	main}}	'meatball'	main}} or {{#invoke:IPA|main}} in the syllable coda.
Northeast-Caucasian	Ingush		lang}} / {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}	main}}	'three'
Japonic	Japanese	Kagoshima	/kuQ/	main}}	'neck'
Malayo-Polynesian	Javanese<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>		lang}}	main}}	'child'	main}} in morpheme-final position.
Aslian	Jedek<ref name="Yager & Burenhult 2017">Template:Cite journal</ref>			main}}	'left side'
Northwest-Caucasian	Kabardian		lang}}/'ė	main}}	'arm/hand'
Manobo	Kagayanen<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>		lang}}	main}}	'floor'
Khasi-Palaungic	Khasi		lang}}	main}}	'cloud'
Mon-Khmer	Khmer		lang}} / Template:Transliteration	main}}	'to clean'	See Khmer phonology
Koreanic	Korean		lang}}/il	main}}	'one'	In free variation with no glottal stop. Occurs only in initial position of a word.
Malayo-Polynesian	Malay	Standard	lang}}	main}}	'no'	main}} in the syllable coda, pronounced before consonants and at end of the a word. In other positions, {{#invoke:IPA|main}} has phonemic status only in loanwords from Arabic. See Malay phonology
		Kelantan-Pattani	{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}	{{#invoke:IPA|main}}	'to tie'	Allophone of final {{#invoke:IPA|main}} in the syllable coda. Pronounced before consonants and at the end of a word.
		Terengganu
Malayo-Polynesian	Makassarese		lang}}	main}}	'be exhausted'	Written as takdokdok, taddoddok, taʼdoddoʼ, taqdoqdoq or taddoddoʼ in other orthography.
Semitic	Maltese		lang}}	main}}	'cat'
Polynesian	Māori	Taranaki, Whanganui	lang}}	main}}	'woman'
Malayo-Polynesian	Minangkabau		lang}}	main}}	'you'	Sometimes written without an apostrophe.
Yok-Utian	Mutsun		lang}}	main}}	'black gooseberry'	Ribes divaricatum
Kartvelian	Mingrelian		lang}}/?oropha	main}}	'love'
Uto-Aztecan	Nahuatl		lang}}	Template:Audio-IPA	'father'	Often left unwritten.
Plateau-Penutian	Nez Perce		lang}}	main}}	'black bear'
Tupi-Guarani	Nheengatu<ref>Template:Cite thesis</ref>		lang}}	main}}	'sloth'	Transcription (or absence thereof) varies.
Algonquian	Ojibwe		lang}}/{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}	main}}	'a book; a letter; a document; a paper'	main}} in some dialects. See Ojibwe phonology.
Ryukyuan	Okinawan		lang}}/utu	main}}	'sound'
Indo-Iranian	Persian		lang}}/ma'ni	main}}	'meaning'	See Persian phonology.
Slavic	Polish		era	[ʔɛra]	'era'	main}}). See Polish phonology#Glottal stop.
Mura	Pirahã		lang}}	main}}	'parent'
Romance	Portuguese<ref>Template:Cite conference</ref>	Vernacular Brazilian	lang}}<ref>Template:Citation In European Portuguese, the "é é" interjection usually employs an epenthetic {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, being pronounced {{#invoke:IPA|main}} instead.</ref>	main}}	'yeah right'<ref>It may be used mostly as a general call of attention for disapproval, disagreement or inconsistency, but also serves as a synonym of the multiuse expression "eu, hein!". Template:In lang How to say 'eu, hein' in English – Adir Ferreira Idiomas Template:Webarchive</ref>	Marginal sound. Does not occur after or before a consonant. In Brazilian casual speech, there is at least one {{#invoke:IPA|main}}–vowel length–pitch accent minimal pair (triply unusual, the ideophones short {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} vs. long {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}). See Portuguese phonology.
		Some speakers	lang}}	main}}	'to the class'
Oceanic	Rotuman<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>		lang}}	main}}	'to box'
Slavic	Russian		не-а / ne-a	[ˈnʲeʔə]	'nope'
Polynesian	Samoan		lang}}	main}}	'sickness/illness'
Romance	Sardinian<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>	Some dialects of Barbagia	lang}}	main}}	'a little'	Intervocalic allophone of {{#invoke:IPA|main}}.
		Some dialects of Sarrabus	lang}}	main}}	'the moon'
Slavic	Serbo-Croatian<ref name="Landau68">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>		lang}}	main}}	'and then'	Optionally inserted between vowels across word boundaries.<ref name="Landau68"/> See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Isolate	Seri		lang}}	main}}	'I'
Cushitic	Somali		lang}}	main}}	'calamity'	main}} occurs before all vowels, it is only written medially and finally.<ref>Template:Citation</ref> See Somali phonology
Romance	Spanish	Nicaraguan<ref>Template:Citation</ref>	lang}}	main}}	'higher'	Marginal sound or allophone of Template:IPAslink between vowels in different words. Does not occur after or before a consonant. See Spanish phonology.
		Yucateco<ref>Template:Citation</ref>	lang}}	main}}	'four years'
Salishan	Squamish		Sḵwx̱wú7mesh sníchim	main}}	'Squamish language'
Philippine	Tagalog		lang}}	main}}	'to poo' (fut.)	See Tagalog phonology.
Polynesian	Tahitian		lang}}	main}}	'pig'
Tai-Kadai	Thai		lang}}/'ā	main}}	'uncle/aunt' (father's younger sibling)
Polynesian	Tongan		lang}}	main}}	'stand'
Samoyedic	Tundra Nenets		lang}}/vy'	main}}	'tundra'
Vietic	Vietnamese<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>		lang}}	main}}	'sultry'	In free variation with no glottal stop. See Vietnamese phonology.
Finnic	Võro		lang}}	main}}	'dogs'	"q" is Võro plural marker (maa, kala, "land", "fish"; maaq, kalaq, "lands", "fishes").
Isolate	Wagiman		lang}}	main}}	'to eat' (perf.)
Omotic	Welayta		7írTi	main}}	'wet'
Polynesian	Wallisian		lang}}	main}}	'life'

See also

• Saltillo
• Index of phonetics articles
• Hamza
• Voiced pharyngeal fricative
• Creaky-voiced glottal approximant

Bibliography

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External links

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