Glottal stop

The 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 ⟨ʔ⟩.

This article is about the sound in spoken language. For the letter, see Glottal stop (letter). For consonants followed by superscript ˀ, see Glottalization.

Glottal stop
ʔ
IPA Number	113
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ʔ
Unicode (hex)	U+0294
X-SAMPA	?
Braille
Image
Audio sample
source · help

As a result of the obstruction of the airflow in the glottis, the glottal vibration either stops or becomes irregular with a low rate and sudden drop in intensity.[1]

Features

Features of the glottal stop:

• Its manner of articulation is occlusive, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract. Since the consonant is also oral, with no nasal outlet, the airflow is blocked entirely, and the consonant is a stop.
• It has no phonation, as there is no airflow through the glottis. [2] It is voiceless, however, in the sense that it is produced without vibration of the vocal cords.

• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.

• Because the sound is not produced with airflow over the tongue, the central–lateral dichotomy does not apply.

• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Writing

Road sign in British Columbia showing the use of 7 to represent /ʔ/ in Squamish.

See also: Glottal stop (letter)

In the traditional Romanization of many languages, such as Arabic, the glottal stop is transcribed with an apostrophe, ⟨ʼ⟩, which is the source of the IPA character ⟨ʔ⟩. In many Polynesian languages that use the Latin alphabet, however, the glottal stop is written with a reversed apostrophe, ⟨ʻ⟩ (called ‘okina in Hawaiian and Samoan), which is commonly used to transcribe the Arabic ayin as well (also ⟨ʽ⟩) and is the source of the IPA character for the voiced pharyngeal fricative ⟨ʕ⟩. In Malay the glottal stop is represented by the letter ⟨k⟩, in Võro and Maltese by ⟨q⟩.

Other scripts also have letters used for representing the glottal stop, such as the Hebrew letter aleph ⟨א⟩ and the Cyrillic letter palochka ⟨Ӏ⟩, used in several Caucasian languages. Modern Latin alphabets for various Indigenous Languages of the Caucasus use the letter heng ('Ꜧ ꜧ'). In Tundra Nenets, it is represented by the letters apostrophe ⟨ʼ⟩ and double apostrophe ⟨ˮ⟩. In Japanese, glottal stops occur at the end of interjections of surprise or anger and are represented by the character ⟨っ⟩.

In the graphic representation of most Philippine languages, the glottal stop has no consistent symbolization. In most cases, however, a word that begins with a vowel-letter (e.g. Tagalog aso, "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 pag-ibig, "love"; or Visayan gabi-i, "night"). If it occurs in the end of a word, the last vowel is 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").[3][4][5]

Some Canadian indigenous languages, especially some of the Salishan languages, have adopted the phonetic symbol ʔ itself as part of their orthographies. In some of them, it occurs as a pair of uppercase and lowercase characters, Ɂ and ɂ.[6] The numeral 7 or question mark is sometimes substituted for ʔ and is preferred in some languages such as Squamish. SENĆOŦEN – which has unique alphabet – contrastly uses the comma ⟨,⟩ 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 ʔ character 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 ʔ, while continuing to challenge the policy.[7]

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 Tha Gàidhlig agam ("I speak Gaelic"), would be rendered Tha Gàidhlig a'am.

Occurrence

In English, the glottal stop occurs as an open juncture (for example, between the vowel sounds in uh-oh!,[8]) and allophonically in t-glottalization. In British English, the glottal stop is most familiar in the Cockney pronunciation of "butter" as "bu'er". 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 (for example, representing uh-oh!, [ˈʌʔoʊ] and [ˈʔʌʔoʊ] are phonemically identical to /ˈʌ.oʊ/).

Often a glottal stop happens at the beginning of vowel phonation after a silence.[1]

Although this segment is not a phoneme in English, it occurs phonetically in nearly all dialects of English, as an allophone of /t/ in the syllable coda. Speakers of Cockney, Scottish English and several other British dialects also pronounce an intervocalic /t/ between vowels as in city. In Received Pronunciation, a glottal stop is inserted before a tautosyllabic voiceless stop: stoʼp, thaʼt, knoʼck, waʼtch, also leaʼp, soaʼk, helʼp, pinʼch.[9][10]

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

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.

The table below demonstrates how widely the sound of glottal stop is found among the world's spoken languages. It is not intended to be a complete list. Any of these languages may have varieties not represented in the table.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Abkhaz		аи	[ʔaj]	'no'	See Abkhaz phonology.
Adyghe		ӏэ	[ʔa]	'arm/hand'
Arabic	Modern Standard[11]	أغاني‎	[ʔaˈɣaːniː]	'songs'	See Arabic phonology, Hamza.
	Levantine and Egyptian[12]	شقة‎	[ˈʃæʔʔæ]	'apartment'	Levantine and Egyptian dialects.[12] Corresponds to /q/ or /g/ in other dialects.
	Fasi and Tlemcenian[13]	قال‎	[ˈʔaːl]	'he said'	Fasi and Tlemcenian dialects. Corresponds to /q/ or /g/ in other dialects.
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic		ܣܥܬ‎	[sʔɐt]	'clock/watch'
Azeri		ər	[ʔær]	'husband'
Bikol		ba-go	[ˈbaːʔɡo]	'new'
Bulgarian		ъ-ъ	[ˈɤʔɤ]	'nope'	See Bulgarian phonology.
Burmese		မြစ်များ	[mjiʔ mjà]	'rivers'
Cebuano		tubò	[ˈtuboʔ]	'to grow'
Chamorro		haluʼu	[həluʔu]	'shark'
Chechen		кхоъ / qoʼ	[qoʔ]	'three'
Chinese	Cantonese	愛/oi3	[ʔɔːi˧]	'love'	See Cantonese phonology.
	Wu	一级了	[ʔiɪʔ.tɕiɪʔ.ʔləʔ]	'superb'
Cook Islands Māori		taʻi	[taʔi]	'one'
Czech		používat	[poʔuʒiːvat]	'to use'	See Czech phonology.
Dahalo			[maʔa]	'water'	see Dahalo phonology
Danish		hånd	[ˈhʌ̹nʔ]	'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.
Dutch[14]		beamen	[bəʔˈaːmə(n)]	'to confirm'	See Dutch phonology.
English	RP	uh-oh	[ˈɐʔəʊ]	'uh-oh'
	American		[ˈʌʔoʊ]
	Australian	cat	[kʰæʔ(t)]	'cat'	Allophone of /t/. See glottalization and English phonology.
	GA
	Estuary		[kʰæʔ]
	Cockney[15]		[kʰɛ̝ʔ]
	Scottish		[kʰäʔ]
	Northern England	the	[ʔ]	'the'
	RP[16] and GA	button	[ˈbɐʔn̩]	'button'
Finnish		sadeaamu	[ˈsɑdeʔˌɑ:mu]	'rainy morning'	See Finnish phonology.[17]
German	Northern	Beamter	[bəˈʔamtɐ]	'civil servant'	See Standard German phonology.
Guaraní		avañeʼẽ	[ãʋ̃ãɲẽˈʔẽ]	'Guaraní'	Occurs only between vowels.
Hawaiian[18]		ʻeleʻele	[ˈʔɛlɛˈʔɛlɛ]	'black'	See Hawaiian phonology.
Hebrew		מַאֲמָר‎	[maʔămar]	'article'	Often elided in casual speech. See Modern Hebrew phonology.
Icelandic		en	[ʔɛn]	'but'	Only used according to emphasis, never occurring in minimal pairs.
Iloko		nalab-ay	[nalabˈʔaj]	'bland tasting'	Hyphen when occurring within the word.
Indonesian		bakso	[ˌbäʔˈso]	'meatball'	Allophone of /k/ or /ɡ/ in the syllable coda.
Irish		m'fháinne	[məʔɔn'ʌ]	'my ring'	Occurs initially and medially, but never finally.
Japanese	Kagoshima	学校	[gaʔkoː]	'school'	Marked by 'っ' in Hiragana, and by 'ッ' in Katakana.
Javanese[19]		anak	[änäʔ]	'child'	Allophone of /k/ in morpheme-final position.
Jedek[20]			[wɛ̃ʔ]	'left side'
Kabardian		ӏэ	[ʔa]	'arm/hand'
Kagayanen[21]		saag	[saˈʔaɡ]	'floor'
Khasi		lyoh	[lʔɔːʔ]	'cloud'
Korean		일	[ʔil]	'one'	In free variation with no glottal stop. Occurs only in initial position of a word.
Malay		tidak	[ˈtidäʔ]	'no'	Allophone of final /k/ in the syllable coda, pronounced before consonants or at end of word.
Maltese		qattus	[ˈʔattus]	'cat'
Māori	Taranaki, Whanganui	wahine	[waʔinɛ]	'woman'
Minangkabau		waʼang	[wäʔäŋ]	'you'	Sometimes written without an apostrophe.
Mutsun		tawkaʼli	[tawkaʔli]	'black gooseberry'	Ribes divaricatum
Mingrelian		ჸოროფა	[ʔɔrɔpʰɑ]	'love'
Nahuatl		tahtli	[taʔtɬi]	'father'	Often left unwritten.
Nez Perce		yáakaʔ	[ˈjaːkaʔ]	'black bear'
Nheengatu[22]		ai	[aˈʔi]	'sloth'	Transcription (or absence thereof) varies.
Okinawan		音	[ʔutu]	'sound'
Persian		معنی‎	[maʔni]	'meaning'	See Persian phonology.
Polish					Most often occurs as an anlaut of an initial vowel (Ala ‒> [Ɂala]). See Polish phonology#Glottal stop.
Pirahã		baíxi	[ˈmàí̯ʔì]	'parent'
Portuguese[23]	Vernacular Brazilian	ê-ê[24]	[ˌʔe̞ˈʔeː]	'yeah right'[25]	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[26]		ʻusu	[ʔusu]	'to box'
Samoan		maʻi	[maʔi]	'sickness/illness'
Sardinian[27]	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[28]		i onda	[iː ʔô̞n̪d̪a̠]	'and then'	Optionally inserted between vowels across word boundaries.[28] See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Seri		he	[ʔɛ]	'I'
Spanish	Nicaraguan[29]	más 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[30]	cuatro años	[ˈkwatɾo̞ ˈʔãɲo̞s]	'four years'
Tagalog		oo	[oʔo]	'yes'	See Tagalog phonology.
Tahitian		puaʻa	[puaʔa]	'pig'
Thai		อา	[ʔaː]	'uncle/aunt' (father's younger sibling)
Tongan		tuʻu	[tuʔu]	'stand'
Tundra Nenets		выʼ	[wɨʔ]	'tundra'
Vietnamese[31]		oi	[ʔɔj˧]	'sultry'	In free variation with no glottal stop. See Vietnamese phonology.
Võro		piniq	[ˈpinʲiʔ]	'dogs'	"q" is Võro plural marker (maa, kala, "land", "fish"; maaq, kalaq, "lands", "fishes").
Wagiman		jamh	[t̠ʲʌmʔ]	'to eat' (perf.)
Welayta			[ʔirʈa]	'wet'
Wallisian		maʻuli	[maʔuli]	'life'

See also

• Saltillo
• Index of phonetics articles

References

1. Umeda N., "Occurrence of glottal stops in fluent speech", J. Acoust. Soc. Am., vol. 64, no. 1, 1978, pp. 88-94.
2. J. C. Catford (December 1990) Glottal consonants ... another view. Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 20.2
3. Paul Morrow (March 16, 2011). "The basics of Filipino pronunciation: Part 2 of 3 • accent marks". Pilipino Express. Retrieved July 18, 2012.
4. Ricardo M.D. Nolasco. Grammar notes on the national language (PDF).
5. Joan Schoellner & Beverly D. Heinle, ed. (2007). Tagalog Reading Booklet (PDF). Simon & Schister's Pimsleur. pp. 5–6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-11-27. Retrieved 2012-07-18.
6. "Proposal to add LATIN SMALL LETTER GLOTTAL STOP to the UCS" (PDF). 2005-08-10. Retrieved 2011-10-26.
7. Browne, Rachel (12 March 2015). "What's in a name? A Chipewyan's battle over her native tongue". Maclean's. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
8. Mastering Hebrew, 1988, ISBN 0812039904, p. xxviii
9. Brown, Gillian. 1977:27. Listening to spoken English. London: Longman.
10. Kortlandt, Frederik (1993). "General Linguistics & Indo-European Reconstruction" (PDF).
11. Thelwall (1990:37)
12. Watson (2002:17)
13. Dendane, Zoubir. (2013). THE STIGMATISATION OF THE GLOTTAL STOP IN TLEMCEN SPEECH COMMUNITY: AN INDICATOR OF DIALECT SHIFT. The International Journal of Linguistics and Literature. Volume 2.
14. Gussenhoven (1992:45)
15. Sivertsen (1960:111)
16. Roach (2004:240)
17. Collinder, Björn (1941). Lärobok i finska språket för krigsmakten. Ivar Häggström. p. 7.
18. Ladefoged (2005:139)
19. Clark, Yallop & Fletcher (2007:105)
20. Yager, Joanne; Burtenhult, Niclas (December 2017). "Jedek: A newly-discovered Aslian variety of Malaysia" (PDF). Linguistic Typology. 21 (3). doi:10.1515/lingty-2017-0012. hdl:11858/00-001M-0000-002E-7CD2-7 – via deGruyter.
21. Olson et al. (2010:206–207)
22. Fonologia e Gramática do Nheengatu – A língua geral falada pelos povos Baré, Warekena e Baniwa Archived 2014-03-07 at the Wayback Machine (in Portuguese)
23. João Veloso & Pedro Tiago Martins (2013). O Arquivo Dialetal do CLUP: disponibilização on-line de um corpus dialetal do português (in Portuguese)
24. Phonetic symbols for Portuguese phonetic transcription Archived 2014-11-08 at the Wayback Machine In European Portuguese, the "é é" interjection usually employs an epenthetic /i/, being pronounced [e̞ˈje̞] instead.
25. 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
26. Blevins (1994:492)
27. Su sardu limba de Sardigna et limba de Europa, Lucia Grimaldi & Guido Mensching, 2004, CUEC, pp.110-111
28. Landau et al. (1999:67)
29. The hypo-hyperarticulation continuum in Nicaraguan Spanish
30. Voiceless stop aspiration in Yucatán Spanish: a sociolinguistic analysis
31. Thompson (1959:458–461)

Bibliography

• Blevins, Juliette (1994), "The Bimoraic Foot in Rotuman Phonology and Morphology", Oceanic Linguistics, 33 (2): 491–516, doi:10.2307/3623138, JSTOR 3623138
• Clark, John Ellery; Yallop, Colin; Fletcher, Janet (2007), An introduction to Phonetics and Phonology, Wiley-Blackwell, ISBN 9781405130837
• Gussenhoven, Carlos (1992), "Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 22 (2): 45–47, doi:10.1017/S002510030000459X
• Ladefoged, Peter (2005), Vowels and Consonants (Second ed.), Blackwell, ISBN 0-631-21411-9
• Landau, Ernestina; Lončarić, Mijo; Horga, Damir; Škarić, Ivo (1999), "Croatian", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 66–69, ISBN 0-521-65236-7
• Olson, Kenneth; Mielke, Jeff; Sanicas-Daguman, Josephine; Pebley, Carol Jean; Paterson, Hugh J., III (2010), "The phonetic status of the (inter)dental approximant" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 40 (2): 199–215, doi:10.1017/S0025100309990296
• Roach, Peter (2004), "British English: Received Pronunciation", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (2): 239–245, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001768
• Schane, Sanford A (1968), French Phonology and Morphology, Boston, Mass.: M.I.T. Press, ISBN 0-262-19040-0
• Sivertsen, Eva (1960), Cockney Phonology, Oslo: University of Oslo
• Thelwall, Robin (1990), "Illustrations of the IPA: Arabic", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 20 (2): 37–41, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004266
• Thompson, Laurence (1959), "Saigon phonemics", Language, 35 (3): 454–476, doi:10.2307/411232, JSTOR 411232
• Watson, Janet (2002), The Phonology and Morphology of Arabic, New York: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-824137-2

External links

• List of languages with [ʔ] on PHOIBLE