Glottals in Accents

I had somebody who was asking a question about glottals. So it's commonly called a glottal stop. So your glottis is basically your vocal folds or the space between your vocal folds. And so where your vocal folds would come together to say stop or even just sort of inhibit the sound, something there might be described as glottal.

Glottal Attacks

Well, there's a glottal stop that a lot of people also call a glottal attack. That's more of a term that's oftentimes used in theater. And I've actually seen a linguist who was like, "What do you mean by a glottal attack? What are you even talking about?" So it's maybe a little bit less of a common term for everyone.

So, the way that it tends to be written phonetically is written so that it looks a bit like a question mark with a line at the bottom of it. And if you're looking for it on the phonetic chart, it's all the way to the right under the plosives because it's a stop plosive that could potentially explode.

So, where it often times occurs is it can occur at the beginning of a word. So, it's a necessity for the way that we express uh-oh. That sort of uh-oh, kind of shock onto the voice. That's a glottal right there. Uh uh. That bit of effort. I'm stopping it at my vocal folds. Uh and then releasing it. And that becomes that uh-oh, that little bit of a shock on. And I'll come back to that in just a minute.

Glottal Stops - at the Ends of Words

Another really common place for it to occur, so, uh-oh, for example, happens with Americans all the time and with most with native English speakers all over the place. It's very common for native speakers all over the place to also use glottals very regularly at the ends of words in place of another plosive, such as like a T for example. What? So though my tongue may have reached for the T, where the air is really stopping is down here at the glottis again.

What kind? In fact, if I say a phrase like "what kind," my tongue is probably not reaching for the T because it's getting ready for the K at the back. What kind? My tongue in casual connected speech immediately goes for the K position but the stoppage of the airflow is actually at the glottis, at the vocal folds. So it's really common at the ends of words.

Now the place where it does occur very commonly for Americans in the middle of a word is on a nasal release, as one of those things. So something like button, so where it's stopping that airflow here, button, where I'm probably reaching towards that T because that's also where the N happens and then what I'm doing is I'm stopping it though here at the vocal folds and then I'm releasing my soft pallet and it goes through the soft pallet for the release of that. So that's where we hear the N. So, I'm kind of simultaneously doing a glottal and a T, but we don't really hear that much of an effect of a T unless I go button, and delay reaching for that T or N and we end up with a vowel in between.

And that's another way that a lot of Americans do it, for example, is like "I'm from Manha-an." "Oh, no, you di-in't." That kind of stoppage in the middle of a word that is becoming actually more and more common I find for a younger generation. A younger generation than me. It's happening a lot more. I noticed it over the course of my teaching at a university that I was like ah this is like the number of students who shift, who don't say, "didn't" but instead say either didin't or din't or di-int has significantly increased over the last like 30 years, I would say. So those are some of the really common places where it occurs in all kinds of accents, very common in the States.

Glottal Stops - in the Middle of Words

It also occurs very commonly in the middles of words in certain accents. So it's a big strong stereotype for a Cockney accent: "litle" "with a little bit of luck." So in the middle of a word like little. Betty Botter might become Be-y Bo-uh and that actually occurs in a number of different accents in the UK, primarily for a t sound but sometimes it actually happens for a k, for example. Like in Liverpool it's very common to do a little bit of that before doing the sort of release for some speakers.

And it also happens in Newcastle. In Newcastle, it's very common for a K to be realized as a glottal stop. And the same thing could happen for even for a P, stop, that thing at the end of a word primarily. Right?

So that's what a glottal is. It's this stoppage where the vocal folds come together, stop the air flow completely, and then may or may not release it. So that's what a glottal is. 

And if you're interested in more or if you've got other questions around this or other elements that are present in a lot of different accents, feel free to ask a question and I'll try to answer that.