glottal stops
Charles Mills
cmills at KNOX.EDU
Sun Apr 22 18:52:33 UTC 2007
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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