Glottal stop
The glottal stop (or glottal plosive) is a type of consonant. The letter for this sound in the International Phonetic Alphabet is ⟨ʔ⟩. The X-SAMPA symbol for this sound is ⟨?⟩. In English, this sound is found in a few accents.
| Glottal stop | |
|---|---|
| ʔ | |
| IPA number | 113 |
| Encoding | |
| Entity (decimal) | ʔ |
| Unicode (hex) | U+0294 |
| X-SAMPA | ? |
One example is the break in "uh-oh".
Features
Features of the glottal stop:
- We produce it at glottal. It means that we produce this sound at the vocal cords (vocal folds) and by the vocal cords.
- Its behavior is stop, or plosive. It means that we produce this sound by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract. (The term plosive contrasts with nasal stops, where the blocked airflow is redirected through the nose.)
- It is an oral consonant. It means that air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
- We do not produce this sound with air flowing over the tongue. So, the central–lateral dichotomy is not suitable.
- The airstream mechanism is pulmonic. It means that we produce this sound by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.
- It has no phonation. This means that it is not a voiced or voiceless sound. This is because there is no air flow through the glottis when the sound is being made.[1]
Writing
When many languages, such as Arabic, are Romanized (which means they are written with the Latin alphabet instead of their usual writing system), the glottal stop is written with the apostrophe ⟨ʼ⟩ or the symbol ʾ. This is where the IPA letter ⟨ʔ⟩ comes from. In many Polynesian languages that use the Latin alphabet, the glottal stop is written with a rotated apostrophe, ⟨ʻ⟩. This letter is called ‘okina in Hawaiian and Samoan. In Malay the glottal stop is written with the letter ⟨k⟩ (at the end of words). In Võro and Maltese, it is written with ⟨q⟩.
Other writing systems also have letters for the glottal stop. For example, the Hebrew alphabet uses the letter aleph ⟨א⟩. Cyrillic has the letter palochka ⟨Ӏ⟩. This letter is used in several Caucasian languages. Modern Latin alphabets for some Indigenous Languages of the Caucasus use the letter heng ('Ꜧ ꜧ'). In Tundra Nenets, it is written with the letters apostrophe ⟨ʼ⟩ and double apostrophe ⟨ˮ⟩. In Japanese, glottal stops occur at the end of interjections of surprise or anger and are written with ⟨っ⟩.
When most Philippine languages are written, the glottal stop is not written all the time. Usually, a word that begins with a vowel (for example, Tagalog aso, "dog") is always pronounced with a glottal stop before that vowel. (This also happens in Modern German and Hausa.) This glottal stop is not written. Some orthographies (or ways of writing words) use a hyphen instead of the reverse apostrophe if the glottal stop is in the middle of the word (e.g. Tagalog pag-ibig, "love"; or Visayan gabi-i, "night"). If it is at the end of a word, the last vowel is written with a circumflex accent (known as the pakupyâ) if the last vowel is stressed and there is a glottal stop in the final vowel (for example, basâ, "wet"). If the stress is on the penultimate, or second-to-last, syllable, then a grave accent (known as the paiwà) is used (for example, batà, "child").[2][3][4]
Some Canadian indigenous languages, especially some of the Salishan languages, use the letter ʔ itself as part of their writing systems. In some of them, there are uppercase and lowercase letters for the glottal stop: Ɂ and ɂ.[5] The number 7 or question mark is sometimes used instead of ʔ. Some languages, such as Squamish, use this instead of ʔ. SENĆOŦEN uses the comma ⟨,⟩ to write the glottal stop. However, this is optional in SENĆOŦEN.
In 2015, two women challenged the government of the Northwest Territories. They wanted to use the ʔ character in their daughters' names: Sahaiʔa, a Chipewyan name, and Sakaeʔah, a Slavey name. The government told them that the identity documents the government uses could not have the letter ʔ on them. Because of this, the women instead used hyphens in their daughters' names. After this, they continued to challenge the government.[6]
In the Crow language, the glottal stop is written as a question mark: ?. The only time the glottal stop is used in Crow is as a question marker morpheme, at the end of a sentence. (A question marker makes a sentence into a question.)[7]
Examples
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abkhaz | аи/ai | [ʔaj] | 'no' | See Abkhaz phonology. | |
| Adyghe | 'ӏ'э/'ė | [ʔa] | 'arm/hand' | ||
| Arabic | Modern Standard[8] | أغاني/'aġani | [ʔaˈɣaːniː] | 'songs' | See Arabic phonology, Hamza. |
| Levantine and Egyptian[9] | شقة/ša''a | [ˈʃæʔʔæ] | 'apartment' | Levantine and Egyptian dialects.[9] Corresponds to /q/ or /[[Error using {{IPAsym}}: IPA symbol "g" not found in list|g]]/ in other dialects. | |
| Fasi and Tlemcenian[10] | قال/'al | [ˈʔaːl] | 'he said' | Fasi and Tlemcenian dialects. Corresponds to /q/ or /[[Error using {{IPAsym}}: IPA symbol "g" not found in list|g]]/ in other dialects. | |
| Azeri | ər | [ʔær] | 'husband' | ||
| bantawa | चा:वा | [t͡saʔwa] | 'drinking water' | ||
| Bikol | bàgo | [ˈbaːʔɡo] | 'new' | ||
| Bulgarian | ъ-ъ/ŭ-ŭ | [ˈʔɤʔɤ] | 'nope' | ||
| Burmese | မြစ်များ/rcī mya: | [mjiʔ mjà] | 'rivers' | ||
| Cebuano | tubò | [ˈtuboʔ] | 'to grow' | ||
| Chamorro | halu'ʼ'u | [həluʔu] | 'shark' | ||
| Ingush | кхо'ъ' / qo'ʼ' | [qoʔ] | 'three' | ||
| Chinese | Cantonese | 愛/oi3 | [ʔɔːi˧] | 'love' | See Cantonese phonology. |
| Wu | 一级了/yi ji le | [ʔiɪʔ.tɕiɪʔ.ʔləʔ] | 'superb' | ||
| Cook Islands Māori | taʻi | [taʔi] | 'one' | ||
| Czech | používat | [poʔuʒiːvat] | 'to use' | See Czech phonology. | |
| Dahalo | 'water' | see Dahalo phonology | |||
| Danish | hån'd' | [ˈhʌ̹nʔ] | 'hand' | Depends on the speaker's accent. Sometimes, it can be pronounced as laryngealisation of the sound before it instead. See Danish phonology. | |
| Dutch[11] | beamen | [bəʔˈaːmə(n)] | 'to confirm' | See Dutch phonology. | |
| English | RP | uh-oh | [ˈɐʔəʊ] | 'uh-oh' | |
| American | |||||
| Australian | ca't' | [kʰæʔ(t)] | 'cat' | Allophone of /t/. See glottalization and English phonology. | |
| GA | |||||
| Estuary | [kʰæʔ] | ||||
| Cockney[12] | [kʰɛ̝ʔ] | ||||
| Scottish | [kʰäʔ] | ||||
| Northern England | 'the' | [ʔ] | 'the' | ||
| RP[13] and GA | button | [ˈbɐʔn̩] | 'button' | ||
| Finnish | sadeaamu | [ˈsɑdeʔˌɑ:mu] | 'rainy morning' | See Finnish phonology.[14] | |
| German | Northern | Beamter | [bəˈʔamtɐ] | 'civil servant' | See Standard German phonology. |
| Guaraní | avañe'ʼ'ẽ | [ãʋ̃ãɲẽˈʔẽ] | 'Guaraní' | This only happens between vowels. | |
| Hawaiian[15] | 'ʻ'ele'ʻ'ele | [ˈʔɛlɛˈʔɛlɛ] | 'black' | See Hawaiian phonology. | |
| Hebrew | מַ'אֲ'מָר/ma'amar | [maʔămaʁ] | 'article' | See Modern Hebrew phonology. | |
| Icelandic | en | [ʔɛn] | 'but' | Only used according to emphasis, never occurring in minimal pairs. | |
| Iloko | nalab'-'ay | [nalabˈʔaj] | 'bland tasting' | ||
| Indonesian | ba'k'so | [ˌbäʔˈso] | 'meatball' | Allophone of /k/ or /ɡ/ in the syllable coda, or the end of a syllable. | |
| Japanese | Kagoshima | 学校 gakkō | [gaʔkoː] | 'school' | Written with 'っ' in Hiragana, and with 'ッ' in Katakana. |
| Javanese[16] | ꦲꦤꦏ꧀ | [änäʔ] | 'child' | Allophone of /k/ in morpheme-final position. | |
| Jedek[17] | [wɛ̃ʔ] | 'left side' | |||
| Kabardian | 'ӏ'э/'ė | [ʔa] | 'arm/hand' | ||
| Kagayanen[18] | saag | [saˈʔaɡ] | 'floor' | ||
| Khasi | l'y'o'h' | [lʔɔːʔ] | 'cloud' | ||
| Khmer | សិទ្ធិ / sĕtthĭ | [səttʰiʔ] | 'rights' | See Khmer phonology | |
| Korean | 일/il | [ʔil] | 'one' | In free variation with no glottal stop. (This means that someone can either pronounce it with a glottal stop or without one, and both ways of pronouncing it are correct.) Occurs only at the start of a word. | |
| Malay | Standard | tida'k' | [ˈtidäʔ] | 'no' | Allophone of final /k/ in the syllable coda (or the end of a syllable). It is pronounced before consonants and at end of a word. In other parts of a word, /ʔ/ is only pronounced in loanwords from Arabic. See Malay phonology. |
| Kelantan-Pattani | ika't' | [ˌiˈkäʔ] | ˌ'to tie' | Allophone of final /k, p, t/ in the syllable coda (or the end of a syllable). It is pronounced before consonants and at the end of a word. See Kelantan-Pattani Malay and Terengganu Malay. | |
| Terengganu | |||||
| Maltese | 'q'attus | [ˈʔattus] | 'cat' | ||
| Māori | Taranaki, Whanganui | wahine | [waʔinɛ] | 'woman' | |
| Minangkabau | wa'ʼ'ang | [wäʔäŋ] | 'you' | Sometimes written without an apostrophe. | |
| Mutsun | tawka'ʼ'li | [tawkaʔli] | 'black gooseberry' | ||
| Mingrelian | ჸოროფა/?oropha | [ʔɔrɔpʰɑ] | 'love' | ||
| Nahuatl | ta'h'tli | [taʔtɬi] | 'father' | Often not written. | |
| Nez Perce | yáaka'ʔ' | [ˈjaːkaʔ] | 'black bear' | ||
| Nheengatu[19] | ai | [aˈʔi] | 'sloth' | Transcription (or absence thereof) varies. | |
| Okinawan | 音/utu | [ʔutu] | 'sound' | ||
| Persian | معنی/ma'ni | [maʔni] | 'meaning' | See Persian phonology. | |
| Polish | era | [ʔɛra] | 'era' | See Polish phonology. | |
| Pirahã | baí'x'i | [ˈmàí̯ʔì] | 'parent' | ||
| Portuguese[20] | Vernacular Brazilian | ê'-'ê[21] | [ˌʔe̞ˈʔeː] | 'yeah right'[22] | Marginal sound. Does not occur after or before a consonant. In Brazilian casual speech, there is at least one [ʔ]–vowel length–pitch accent minimal pair (triply unusual, the ideophones short ih vs. long ih). See Portuguese phonology. |
| Some speakers | à aula | [ˈa ˈʔawlɐ] | 'to the class' | ||
| Rotuman[23] | 'ʻ'usu | [ʔusu] | 'to box' | ||
| Samoan | ma'ʻ'i | [maʔi] | 'sickness/illness' | ||
| Sardinian[24] | Some dialects of Barbagia | unu pacu | [ˈuːnu paʔu] | 'a little' | Intervocalic allophone of /n, k, l/. |
| Some dialects of Sarrabus | sa luna | [sa ʔuʔa] | 'the moon' | ||
| Serbo-Croatian[25] | i onda | [iː ʔô̞n̪d̪a̠] | 'and then' | Optionally inserted between vowels across word boundaries.[25] See Serbo-Croatian phonology. | |
| Seri | 'h'e | [ʔɛ] | 'I' | ||
| Somali | ba' | [baʔ] | 'calamity' | /ʔ/ occurs before all vowels. However, it is only written in the middle or at the end of a word.[26] See Somali phonology. | |
| Spanish | Nicaraguan[27] | má's' alto | [ˈma ˈʔal̻t̻o̞] | 'higher' | Marginal sound or allophone of /s/ between vowels in different words. Does not occur after or before a consonant. See Spanish phonology. |
| Yucateco[28] | cuatro años | [ˈkwatɾo̞ ˈʔãɲo̞s] | 'four years' | ||
| Tagalog | oo | [oʔo] | 'yes' | See Tagalog phonology. | |
| Tahitian | puaʻa | [puaʔa] | 'pig' | ||
| Thai | 'อ'า/'ā | [ʔaː] | 'uncle/aunt' (father's younger sibling) | ||
| Tongan | tu'ʻ'u | [tuʔu] | 'stand' | ||
| Tundra Nenets | вы'ʼ'/vy' | [wɨʔ] | 'tundra' | ||
| Vietnamese[29] | oi | [ʔɔj˧] | 'sultry' | In free variation with no glottal stop. (Free variation means that the word can be pronounced with or without a glottal stop.) See Vietnamese phonology. | |
| Võro | pini'q' | [ˈpinʲiʔ] | 'dogs' | "q" is the plural marker in Võro. (A plural marker is a morpheme which makes words into plurals. For example, maa, "land"; maaq, "lands".) | |
| Wagiman | jam'h' | [t̠ʲʌmʔ] | 'to eat' (perfect) | ||
| Welayta | 7írTi | [ʔirʈa] | 'wet' | ||
| Wallisian | ma'ʻ'uli | [maʔuli] | 'life' | ||
Glottal Stop Media
Road sign in British Columbia showing the use of the digit ⟨7⟩ to represent /ʔ/ in Squamish.
References
- ↑ Catford, J. C.. Glottal Consonants … Another View (in en). Journal of the International Phonetic Association 20 (2) (1990). p. 25–26. doi:10.1017/S0025100300004229.
- ↑ Morrow, Paul. The Basics of Filipino Pronunciation: Part 2 of 3 • Accent Marks (in en). Pilipino Express (March 16, 2011). Retrieved July 18, 2012.
- ↑ Nolasco, Ricardo M. D.. Grammar Notes on the National Language (in en).[dead link]
- ↑ Tagalog Reading Booklet (2007)Simon & Schister's Pimsleur. p. 5–6. Retrieved 2012-07-18.
- ↑ Proposal to Add Latin Small Letter Glottal Stop to the UCS (in en) (2005-08-10). Retrieved 2011-10-26.
- ↑ Browne, Rachel. What's in A Name? a Chipewyan's Battle Over Her Native Tongue (in en). Maclean's (12 March 2015). Retrieved 5 April 2015.
- ↑ Graczyk, R. 2007. A Grammar of Crow: Apsáaloke Aliláau. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
- ↑ Thelwall (1990:37)
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Watson (2002:17)
- ↑ Dendane, Zoubir. The Stigmatisation of the Glottal Stop in Tlemcen Speech Community: An Indicator of Dialect Shift (in en). The International Journal of Linguistics and Literature 2 (3) (2013). p. 1–10.
- ↑ Gussenhoven (1992:45)
- ↑ Sivertsen (1960:111)
- ↑ Roach (2004:240)
- ↑ Collinder, Björn. Lärobok i finska språket för krigsmakten (in fi) (1941)Ivar Häggström. p. 7.
- ↑ Ladefoged (2005:139)
- ↑ Clark, Yallop & Fletcher (2007:105)
- ↑ Yager, Joanne. Jedek: A Newly-Discovered Aslian Variety of Malaysia (in en). Linguistic Typology 21 (3) (2017). p. 493–545. doi:10.1515/lingty-2017-0012. Retrieved 2018-08-07.
- ↑ Olson et al. (2010:206–207)
- ↑ Cruz, Aline da (2011) (in pt). Fonologia e Gramática do Nheengatú: A língua geral falada pelos povos Baré, Warekena e Baniwa. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. . http://www.lotpublications.nl/publish/articles/004280/bookpart.pdf.
- ↑ (2013) "O Arquivo Dialetal do CLUP: disponibilização on-line de um corpus dialetal do português" in XXVIII Encontro Nacional da Associação Portuguesa de Linguística, Coimbra, APL. : 673–692.
- ↑ Phonetic Symbols for Portuguese Phonetic Transcription (in en) (October 2012). In European Portuguese, the "é é" interjection usually employs an epenthetic /i/, being pronounced [e̞ˈje̞] instead.
- ↑ 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!". (in Portuguese) How to say 'eu, hein' in English – Adir Ferreira Idiomas Archived 2013-07-08 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Blevins (1994:492)
- ↑ Su sardu limba de Sardigna et limba de Europa (2004)Cooperativa Universitaria Editrice Cagliaritana. p. 110–111. ISBN 88-8467-170-1.
- ↑ 25.0 25.1 Landau et al. (1999:67)
- ↑ Edmondson, J. A.. Supraglottal Cavity Shape, Linguistic Register, and Other Phonetic Features of Somali (in en).
- ↑ Chappell, Whitney. The Hypo-Hyperarticulation Continuum in Nicaraguan Spanish (in en). Retrieved 2014-03-07.
- ↑ Michnowicz, Jim. Voiceless Stop Aspiration in Yucatán Spanish: A Sociolinguistic Analysis (in en). Retrieved 2014-03-07.
- ↑ Thompson (1959:458–461)
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- Gussenhoven, Carlos. Dutch (in en). Journal of the International Phonetic Association 22 (2) (1992). p. 45–47. doi:10.1017/S002510030000459X.
- Ladefoged, Peter. Vowels and Consonants (in en) (2005)Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-21411-9.
- Landau, Ernestina. Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet (in en) (1999). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 66–69. ISBN 0-521-65236-7.
- Olson, Kenneth. The Phonetic Status of The (Inter)dental Approximant (in en). Journal of the International Phonetic Association 40 (2) (2010). p. 199–215. doi:10.1017/S0025100309990296. Retrieved 2019-09-26.
- Roach, Peter. British English: Received Pronunciation (in en). Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (2) (2004). p. 239–245. doi:10.1017/S0025100304001768.
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- Sivertsen, Eva. Cockney Phonology (1960)Oslo: University of Oslo.
- Thelwall, Robin. Illustrations of the IPA: Arabic (in en). Journal of the International Phonetic Association 20 (2) (1990). p. 37–41. doi:10.1017/S0025100300004266.
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