See also Glottalic consonant A glottalic consonant is a consonant produced with some important contribution (a movement, a closure) of the glottis (the opening that leads from the nose and mouth cavities into the larynx and the lungs). ...

Glottalization is the complete or partial closure of the glottis during the articulation of another sound. Glottalization of vowels and voiced consonants is most often realized as creaky voice (partial closure). Glottalization of voiceless consonants usually involves complete closure of the glottis; another way to describe this phenomenon is to say that a glottal stop is made simultaneously with another consonant. In certain cases, the glottal stop can even wholly replace the voiceless consonant. The space between the vocal cords is called the glottis. ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... Phoneticians define phonation as use of the laryngeal system to generate an audible source of acoustic energy, i. ... A consonant is a sound in spoken language that is characterized by a closure or stricture of the vocal tract sufficient to cause audible turbulence. ... Creaky voice (also called laryngealisation or vocal fry, especially in the US), is a special kind of phonation in which the arytenoid cartilages in the larynx are drawn together; as a result, the vocal folds are compressed rather tightly, becoming relatively slack and compact, and forming a large, irregularly vibrating... The space between the vocal cords is called the glottis. ... The glottal stop or voiceless glottal plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in many spoken languages. ... A consonant is a sound in spoken language that is characterized by a closure or stricture of the vocal tract sufficient to cause audible turbulence. ...

Different terms are used to describe each phenomenon; here are the most common one, used in the literature dealing with the subject:

• When a sound such as /p/, /t/, or /k/ in final or medial position is completely substituted by a "glottal stop" [ʔ], one speaks of Glottaling or Glottal Replacement. This is for instance very common in Cockney in which "water" will be most likely pronounced as [ˡwɒʔə]. We will come back hereafter to the different phonetic contexts in which this can appear.

• When a sound such as /p/, /t/, or /k/ in final or medial position is accompanied by a [ʔ], then one speaks of Pre-Glottalization or Glottal Reinforcement. This is very common in all accents of English, RP included, and can be found in words such as "electric" [ɪˡlɛʔktɹɪk] or "foot" [ˡfʊʔt].

Most often, glottalization (wich is the cover term for the two phenomena we raised above) affects the consonnant /t/, but /p/ and /k/ are also more and more affected by it. /tʃ/ (the voiceless palato-alveolar affricate) can also be subject to it (cf. Peter Roach's article in the references given below). In a general way, glottalization can affect only voiceless consonnants such as /p/, /t/ or /k/, not forgetting /tʃ/ for pre-glottalization mainly.

Phonetic contexts

The glottal stop can appear word-medially or word-finally but never (at least not yet) word-initially. In 1992, Anthea Sullivan published a very interested book entitled Sound Change in Progress in which she studied glottalization and R-insertion. The following lines have been inspired by this book of hers, especially by p. 46 in which she lists the different contexts in which glottalization (pre-glottalization or glottaling) can appear. Let me make a small digresion here by insisting on the fact that the glottal stop is not properly speaking a sound of english, but a kind of allophone of voiceless consonants, more particularly /p/, /t/ and /k/. Besides, it only appears in free variation, which means that, unlike /l/ and its dark allophone, there is no precise rule to determine and anticipate where [ʔ] will appear and where it will not. Only possible contexts, based on research and recordings of native English people, can be enumerated to determine where [ʔ] can appear. In phonetics, an allophone is one of several similar phones that belong to the same phoneme. ... Free variation in linguistics is the phenomenon of two (or more) sounds or forms appearing in the same environment without a change in meaning and without being considered incorrect by native speakers. ...

So here are the possible contexts:

• Word medial

Glottalization can appear:

• • when preceded by a stressed vowel and followed by an inflectional morpheme.

Eg: "bak|ed" [ˡbɛɪʔkt], "hat|s" [ˡhæʔts], "hope|d" [ˡhəʊʔpt]. In Linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit in a given language. ...

• • when preceded by a stressed vowel and followed by a consonant.

Eg: "fiction" [ˡfɪʔkʃən], "opera" [ˡɒʔpɹə].

• • when preceded by a stressed vowel and followed by a vowel or a syllabic /l/.

Eg: "city" [ˡsɪʔti] or [ˡsɪʔi], "jacket" [ˡdʒæʔkɪt] or [ˡdʒæʔɪt], "bottle" [ˡbɒʔtəɫ] or [ˡbɒʔəɫ].

N.B. Glottaling in this context is not very common in Received Pronunciation or Estuary English, but is quite frequent in Cockney. Received Pronunciation (RP) is a form of pronunciation of the English language, sometimes defined as the educated spoken English of southeastern England. ... Estuary English is a name given to the form of English widely spoken in South East England, especially along the river Thames and its estuary. ... A Cockney, in the loosest sense of the word, is a working-class inhabitant of the East End of London. ...

• • when preceded by a stressed vowel and followed by a syllabic nasal.

Eg: "bottom" [ˡbɒʔtəm] or [ˡbɒʔəm], "Britain" [ˡbɹɪʔtən] or [ˡbɹɪʔən]

• • when preceded by an unstressed vowel and followed by an unstressed or secondary-stressed vowel.

Eg: "visitor" [ˡvɪzɪʔə], "seniority" [si:niˡɒɹəʔi].

• Word final

Glottalization can appear:

• • when preceded by a vowel and followed by another word beginning with a consonant.

Eg: "put them" [ˡpʊʔt ðəm] or [ˡpʊʔ ðəm], "think so" [ˡθɪŋk səʊ] or [ˡθɪŋʔ səʊ], "flip through" [ˡflɪʔp θɹu:] or [ˡflɪʔ θɹu:].

N.B. Interestingly here, for the last example, we are coming to noticing that when a sound is the allophone of different phonemes, here /p/, /t/, and /k/, then there can sometimes be ambiguity if two different words or locutions that are minimal pairs both feature glottaling. Indeed, if one says [ˡflɪʔ θɹu:], how to know whether this person is meaning "flip through" or "flick through"?! The problem here is minor, for these two phrasal verbs are semantically quite close. Now, put the case that the following three words are realized with a glottal stop : "pit", "pip" and "pick"; so [ˡpɪʔ], [ˡpɪʔ] and [ˡpɪʔ]. How then to differentiate between the three realizations?! Fortunately, the semantic context can help! But what is highly interesting to underline here is that "pit", "pip" and "pick" become homophones though they originally were minimal pairs. In spoken language, a phoneme is a basic, theoretical unit of sound that can distinguish words (i. ... In phonetics, minimal pairs are pairs of words or phrases in a particular language, which differ in only one phoneme and have a distinct meaning. ... In the English language, a phrasal verb is a verb combined with a preposition, an adverb, or an adverbial particle, all three of which are uninflected. ... In general, semantics (from the Greek semantikos, or significant meaning, derived from sema, sign) is the study of meaning, in some sense of that term. ... Homonyms (in Greek homoios = identical and onoma = name) are words which have the same form (orthographic/phonetic) but unrelated meaning. ... In phonetics, minimal pairs are pairs of words or phrases in a particular language, which differ in only one phoneme and have a distinct meaning. ...

• • when preceded by a vowel and followed by another word beginning with a vowel.

Eg: "sort of" [ˡsɔ:ʔt əv] or [ˡsɔ:ʔ əv],"look into" [ˡlʊʔk ɪntʊ] or [ˡlʊʔ ɪntʊ], "keep on" [ˡki:ʔp ɒn] or [ˡki:ʔ ɒn]

• • when preceded by a vowel and followed by a pause or nothing.

Eg: "quite -- um..." [ˡkwaɪʔt] or [ˡkwaɪʔ], "what?" [ˡwɒʔt] or [ˡwɒʔ]

• • within compound words, at the end of the first morpheme.

Eg: "milk|man" [ˡmɪlʔkmæn] or [ˡmɪlʔmæn], "light|weight" [ˡlaɪʔtwɛɪt] or [ˡlaɪʔwɛɪt]. And the last consonant of the last compound word being a voiceless plosive preceding, here, nothing, one could even say [ˡlaɪʔtwɛɪʔt] or [ˡlaɪʔwɛɪʔ] or even, why not, with a mix of pre-glottalization and glottaling: [ˡlaɪʔtwɛɪʔ] or [ˡlaɪʔwɛɪʔt]. A compound is a word (lexeme) that consists of more than one free morpheme. ... In morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme is the smallest lingual unit that carries a semantic interpretation. ...

Ejectives and implosives

Ejectives and implosives are sometimes thought of as kinds of glottalized consonants. However, they involve a very different airstream mechanism than the pulmonic egressive sounds discussed here. Ejective consonants are a class of consonants which may contrast with aspirated or unaspirated consonants in a language. ... Implosive consonants are glottalic ingressive consonants, meaning that air is sucked into the mouth while pronouncing them rather than expelled out of the mouth via the lungs as in pulmonic consonants. ... In phonetics, initiation is the action by which an air-flow is created through the vocal tract. ... This page is a candidate to be moved to Wiktionary. ...

In English, voiceless stops are frequently glottalized at the ends of words: The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. ...

• nip [nɪpˀ]
• nit [nɪtˀ]
• nick [nɪkˀ]

While glottalization is phonemic in some languages, in English it is strictly allophonic, meaning it behaves as a variation of another sound. In human language, a phoneme is a set of phones (speech sounds or sign elements) that are cognitively equivalent. ... In phonetics, an allophone is one of several similar phones that belong to the same phoneme. ...

There are two other ways to represent glottalization in the IPA: (a) the same way as ejectives, with an apostrophe; or (b) with the under-tilde for creaky voice. For example, the Yapese word for sick with a glottalized m could be transcribed as either [m’aar] or [m̰aar]. (In some typefaces, the apostrophe will occur above the em.) The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system of phonetic notation devised by linguists to accurately and uniquely represent each of the wide variety of sounds (phones or phonemes) used in spoken human language. ... Yapese is a language spoken by 6,600 people on the island of Yap (Federated States of Micronesia). ...

References

Glottalization

• Andrésen, B.S. 1968. Pre-glottalization in English Standard Pronunciation. Oslo: Norwegian University Press.

• Christopherson, P. 1952. "The glottal stop in English". English Studies. 33. 156-63.

• Higginbottom, E. 1964. "Glottal reinforcement in English". Transactions of the Philological Society.

• O'Connor, J.D. 1952. "RP and the reinforcing glottal stop". English Studies. 33. 214-18

• Roach, P. 1973. "Glottalization of English /p/, /t/, /k/ and /tʃ/: a reexamination". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 3.1. 10-21.

• Sullivan, A.E. 1992. Sound Change in Progress: a study of phonological change and lexical diffusion, with reference to glottalization and r-loss in the speech of some Exeter schoolchildren. Exeter Linguistic Studies 17. Exeter University Press.

English accents

• Foulkes, P. and Docherty, G. 1999. Urban Voices: accent studies in the British Isles. London: Arnold.

• Hughes, A. and Trudgill, P. 2005. English Accents and Dialects. Fourth Edition. London: Arnold.

• Wells, J.C. 1982. Accents of English. Volumes 1-3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Internet Links

• [1] Kortlandt, Frederik. Glottalization, Preaspiration and Gemination in English and Scandinavian. Doc PDF.

• [2] Kortland, Frederik. How Old is the English Glottal Stop?. Doc PDF.

• [3] Docherty, G. et al. Descriptive Adequacy in Phonology: a variationist perspective. Doc PDF.

• [4] Kerswill, P. Dialect Levelling and Geographical Diffusion in British English. Doc PDF.

• [5] Przedlacka, J. Estuary English and RP: Some Recent Findings. Doc PDF.

• [6] Wells, J.C. Site of the UCL (University College of London) Department of Phonetics and Linguistics. Web documents relating to Estuary English.