glottal stops

[Charles Mills]

Dear Paul,

This is in reply to your query about glottal stops.  (For some reasons 
my posts to SEELANGS get bounced back.)  You say "A glo'al stop alone is 
pure silence, so it cannot be a syllable."  Then ask "Do you mean that 
the syllable /ends/ with a glo'al stop?  Or /begins/ with one?"

Someone else may say this, and I'm not sure if it's germaine to you 
post, but a glottal stop isn't silent.  Like any other phonetic segment, 
it has a physiological gesture and duration, and like all stops, it 
makes a sound.  If your pronunciation is like mine, think of the 
unguarded American pronunciation of the word "button".  /t/ and /n/ are 
both made at the same point of articulation (the alveolar ridge), but 
/t/ is a stop, while /n/ is a continant.  You know how to make a /t/, 
but listen carefully tohow the /t/ in this word is released!  The 
release is not at the alveolar ridge, but at the glottis!  In other 
words, you're hearing a glottal stop.  But you're right, stops in 
general don't form syllabic peaks, rather, they are found in the onset 
or coda. 

More detail than you asked for, I know, but inquiring minds want to 
know!  :-)

Charles Mills
Assistant Professor of Russian
Knox College


Paul B. Gallagher wrote:

> William Ryan wrote:
>
>> ...
>> In London, England, uneducated English for 'theatre' would be 
>> 'featre', in which the last syllable is usually a glottal stop. ...
>
>
> Could you clarify this, please?
>
> A glo'al stop alone is pure silence, so it cannot be a syllable. Do 
> you mean that the syllable /ends/ with a glo'al stop? Or /begins/ with 
> one?
>


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