Glottalization

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Glottalization is the complete or partial closure of the glottis during the articulation of another sound. Glottalization of vowels and other sonorants is most often realized as creaky voice (partial closure). Glottalization of obstruent 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 term 'glottalized' is also used for ejective and implosive consonants; see glottalic consonant for examples.

There are two other ways to represent glottalization of sonorants 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 [mʼaar] or [m̰aar].^{[citation needed]} (In some typefaces, the apostrophe will occur above the m.)

Glottalization varies along three parameters, all of which are continuums. The degree of glottalization varies from none (modal voice, [d]) through stiff voice ([d̬]) and creaky voice ([d̰]) to full glottal closure (glottal reinforcement or glottal replacement, described below). The timing also varies, from a simultaneous single segment [d̰] to an onset or coda such as [ˀd] or [dˀ] to a sequence such as [ʔd] or [dʔ]. Full or partial closure of the glottis also allows glottalic airstream mechanisms to operate, producing ejective or implosive consonants; implosives may themselves have modal, stiff, or creaky voice. It is not always clear from linguistic descriptions if a language has a series of light ejectives or voiceless consonants with glottal reinforcement,^[1] or similarly if it has a series of light implosives or voiced consonants with glottal reinforcement.^[a] The airstream parameter is only known to be relevant to obstruents, but the first two are involved with both obstruents and sonorants, including vowels.

When a phoneme is completely substituted by a glottal stop [ʔ], one speaks of glottaling or glottal replacement. This is, for instance, very common in British English dialects such as Cockney and Estuary English dialects. In these dialects, the glottal stop is an allophone of /p/, /t/ and /k/ word-finally, and when followed by an unstressed vowel (including syllabic /l/ /m/ and /n/) in a post-stress syllable.^[2] 'Water' can be pronounced [ˈwɔːʔə] – the glottal stop has superseded the 't' sound. Other examples include "city" [ˈsɪʔi], "bottle" [ˈbɒʔo], "Britain" [ˈbɹɪʔən], "seniority" [sɪiniˈɒɹəʔi]. In some consonant clusters, glottal replacement of /t/ is common even among RP speakers.

Geordie English has a unique form of glottalization involving glottal reinforcement of t, k, and p, for example in "matter", "lucky", and "happy". T, k, p sounds between vowels are pronounced simultaneously with a glottal stop represented in IPA as p͡ʔ, k͡ʔ and t͡ʔ.^[3]

Glottal replacement occurs in Indonesian, where syllable final /k/ is produced as a glottal stop. In every Gorontalic language except Buol and Kaidipang, *k was replaced by a glottal stop, even in word-initial position, except when it followed *ŋ (*kayu → Gorontalo ayu, *konuku → onu'u).^[4] In Hawaiian, the glottal stop is reconstructed to have come from other Proto-Polynesian consonants. The following table displays the shift /k/ → /ʔ/ as well as the shift /t/ → /k/.

Glottal replacement is not purely a feature of consonants. Yanesha' has three vowel qualities (/a/, /e/, and /o/) that have phonemic contrasts between short, long, and "laryngeal" or glottalized forms. While the latter generally consists of creaky phonation, there is some allophony involved. In pre-final contexts, a variation occurs (especially before voiced consonants) ranging from creaky phonation throughout the vowel to a sequence of a vowel, glottal stop, and a slightly rearticulated vowel: /maˀˈnʲoʐ/ ('deer') → [maʔa̯ˈnʲoʂ].^[5]

When a phoneme is accompanied (either sequentially or simultaneously) by a [ʔ] or a [ˀ], a glottal stop modifier, then one speaks of pre-glottalization or glottal reinforcement.

This is common in some varieties of English, RP included; /t/ and /tʃ/ are the most affected but /p/ and /k/ also regularly show pre-glottalization.^[6] In the English dialects exhibiting pre-glottalization, the consonants in question are usually glottalized in the coda position: "what" [ˈwɒʔt], "fiction" [ˈfɪʔkʃən], "milkman" [ˈmɪɫʔkmən], "opera" [ˈɒʔpɹə]. To a certain extent, some varieties of English have free variation between glottal replacement and glottal reinforcement.^[2]

Glottal reinforcement is present in some varieties of Low Saxon, most notably Twents. It usually denotes syllable reduction, and can be heard before plosives: Dat düt et 'that does it, that is the case' can in its most extreme form be reduced to dʌʔˈdʏʔt.

• Ejective consonant
• Glottalic consonant
• Guttural
• Implosive consonant
• Stød
• T-glottalization

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 (1–6): 156–163. doi:10.1080/00138385208596879.
• Fast, Peter W. (1953). "Amuesha (Arawak) Phonemes". International Journal of American Linguistics. 19 (3): 191–194. doi:10.1086/464218. S2CID 145692545.
• Higginbottom, E. (1964). "Glottal reinforcement in English". Transactions of the Philological Society. 63: 129–142. doi:10.1111/j.1467-968X.1964.tb01010.x.
• Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19815-6.
• O'Connor, J.D. (1952). "RP and the reinforcing glottal stop". English Studies. 33: 214–218.
• Roach, P. (1973). "Glottalization of English /p/, /t/, /k/ and /tʃ/: a reexamination". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 3 (1): 10–21. doi:10.1017/S0025100300000633. S2CID 145061712.
• 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 University Press.

English accents

• Foulkes, P.; Docherty, G. (1999). Urban Voices: accent studies in the British Isles. London: Arnold.
• Hughes, A.; Trudgill, P. (2005). English Accents and Dialects (fourth ed.). London: Arnold.
• Wells, John C. (1982). Accents of English. Vol. 1: An Introduction (pp. i–xx, 1–278), Vol. 2: The British Isles (pp. i–xx, 279–466), Vol. 3: Beyond the British Isles (pp. i–xx, 467–674). Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511611759, 10.1017/CBO9780511611766. ISBN 0-52129719-2 , 0-52128540-2 , 0-52128541-0 .

• Kortlandt, Frederik (2003). "Glottalization, Preaspiration and Gemination in English and Scandinavian" (PDF). Amsterdamer Beiträge Zur Älteren Germanistik, Band 58. Rodopi. pp. 5–10. ISBN 9042008385.
• Kortland, Frederik (1997). "How Old is the English Glottal Stop?" (PDF). North-Western European Language Evolution: 31–32. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 April 2008. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
• Docherty, Gerard (1997). "Descriptive Adequacy in Phonology: a variationist perspective" (PDF). Journal of Linguistics. 33 (2): 275–310. doi:10.1017/S002222679700649X. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 April 2008.
• Kerswill, Paul (2003). "Dialect Levelling and Geographical Diffusion in British English" (PDF). Social dialectology : in honour of Peter Trudgill. John Benjamins. pp. 223–243. ISBN 9781588114037. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 May 2006. Retrieved 4 July 2006.
• Przedlacka, Joanna (2001). "Estuary English and RP: Some Recent Findings" (PDF). Studia Anglica Posnaniensia. 36.
• Wells, J.C. "Web documents relating to Estuary English". University College of London Department of Phonetics and Linguistics. Retrieved 12 March 2024.