Glottalization

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See also Glottalic consonant

Glottalization is the complete or partial closure of the glottis during the articulation of another sound. Glottalization of vowels and voiced consonants is most often realized as creaky voice (partial closure). Glottalization of voiceless 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.

Different terms are used to describe each phenomenon; here are the most common ones, used in the literature dealing with the subject:

  • When a phoneme such as /p/, /t/, or /k/ in final or medial position is completely substituted by a "glottal stop" [ʔ], one speaks of Glottaling or Glottal Replacement. This is for instance very common in Cockney in which "water" will be most likely pronounced as [ˈwɒʔə]. We will come back hereafter to the different phonetic contexts in which this can appear.
  • When a phoneme such as /p/, /t/, or /k/ in final or medial position is accompanied by a [ʔ], then one speaks of Pre-Glottalization or Glottal Reinforcement. This is very common in all accents of English, RP included, and can be found in words such as "electric" [ɪˈlɛʔktɹɪk] or "foot" [ˈfʊʔt].

Most often, glottalization (which is the cover term for the two phenomena we raised above) affects the consonnant /t/, but /p/ and /k/ are also more and more affected by it. /tʃ/ (the voiceless palato-alveolar affricate) can also be subject to it (cf. Peter Roach's article in the references given below). In a general way, glottalization can affect only voiceless consonnants such as /p/, /t/ or /k/, not forgetting /tʃ/ for pre-glottalization mainly.

Contents

[edit] Phonetic contexts

The glottal stop can appear word-medially or word-finally but never (at least not yet) word-initially. In 1992, Anthea Sullivan published a book entitled Sound Change in Progress in which she studied glottalization and R-insertion. The following lines have been inspired by this book of hers, especially by p. 46 in which she lists the different contexts in which glottalization (pre-glottalization or glottaling) can appear. The glottal stop is not a phoneme in English, but is a sort of allophone of voiceless plosives /p/, /t/ and /k/. It only appears in free variation, which means that, unlike /l/ and its dark allophone, there is no precise rule to determine and anticipate where [ʔ] will appear and where it will not. Only possible contexts, based on research and recordings of native English people, can be enumerated to determine where [ʔ] can appear.

So here are the possible contexts:

  • Word medial

Glottalization can appear:

Eg: "bak|ed" [ˈbeɪʔkt], "hat|s" [ˈhæʔts], "hope|d" [ˈhəʊʔpt].

    • when preceded by a stressed vowel and followed by a consonant.

Eg: "fiction" [ˈfɪʔkʃən], "opera" [ˈɒʔpɹə].

    • when preceded by a stressed vowel and followed by a vowel or a syllabic /l/.

Eg: "city" [ˈsɪʔtɪ] or [ˈsɪʔɪ], "jacket" [ˈdʒæʔkɪt] or [ˈdʒæʔɪt], "bottle" [ˈbɒʔtəɫ] or [ˈbɒʔəɫ].

N.B. Glottalizing in this context is not very common in Received Pronunciation or Estuary English, but is quite frequent in Cockney.

    • when preceded by a stressed vowel and followed by a syllabic nasal.

Eg: "bottom" [ˈbɒʔtəm] or [ˈbɒʔəm], "Britain" [ˈbɹɪʔtən] or [ˈbɹɪʔən]

    • when preceded by an unstressed vowel and followed by an unstressed or secondary-stressed vowel.

Eg: "visitor" [ˈvɪzɪʔə], "seniority" [siːniˈɒɹəʔi].

  • Word final

Glottalization can appear:

    • when preceded by a vowel and followed by another word beginning with a consonant.

Eg: "put them" [ˈpʊʔt ðəm] or [ˈpʊʔ ðəm], "think so" [ˈθɪŋk səʊ] or [ˈθɪŋʔ səʊ], "flip through" [ˈflɪʔp θɹuː] or [ˈflɪʔ θɹuː].

N.B. The last example shows that when a sound is the allophone of different phonemes, here /p/, /t/, and /k/, then there can sometimes be ambiguity if two different words or locutions that are minimal pairs both feature glottaling. Indeed, if one says [ˈflɪʔ θɹuː], how to know whether this person is meaning "flip through" or "flick through"?! The problem here is minor, for these two phrasal verbs are semantically quite close. Now, put the case that the following three words are realized with a glottal stop : "pit", "pip" and "pick"; so [ˈpɪʔ], [ˈpɪʔ] and [ˈpɪʔ]. While semantic context can help differentiate the three, the sets are now homophones though they originally were minimal pairs.

    • when preceded by a vowel and followed by another word beginning with a vowel.

Eg: "sort of" [ˈsɔ:ʔt əv] or [ˈsɔːʔ əv],"look into" [ˈlʊʔk ɪntʊ] or [ˈlʊʔ ɪntʊ], "keep on" [ˈkiːʔp ɒn] or [ˈkiːʔ ɒn]

    • when preceded by a vowel and followed by a pause or nothing.

Eg: "quite -- um..." [ˈkwaɪʔt] or [ˈkwaɪʔ], "what?" [ˈwɒʔt] or [ˈwɒʔ]

Eg: "milk|man" [ˈmɪlʔkmæn] or [ˈmɪlʔmæn], "light|weight" [ˈlaɪʔtwɛɪt] or [ˈlaɪʔwɛɪt]. And the last consonant of the last compound word being a voiceless plosive preceding, here, nothing, one could even say [ˈlaɪʔtwɛɪʔt] or [ˈlaɪʔwɛɪʔ] or even with a mix of pre-glottalization and glottaling: [ˈlaɪʔtwɛɪʔ] or [ˈlaɪʔwɛɪʔt].

[edit] Ejectives and implosives

Ejectives and implosives are sometimes thought of as kinds of glottalized consonants. However, they involve a very different airstream mechanism than the pulmonic egressive sounds discussed here.

In English, voiceless stops are frequently glottalized at the ends of words:

  • nip [nɪpˀ]
  • nit [nɪtˀ]
  • nick [nɪkˀ]

While glottalization is phonemic in some languages, in English it is strictly allophonic, meaning it behaves as a variation of another sound.

There are two other ways to represent glottalization 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 [m’aar] or [m̰aar]. (In some typefaces, the apostrophe will occur above the em.)

[edit] References

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. 156-63.
  • Higginbottom, E. 1964. "Glottal reinforcement in English". Transactions of the Philological Society.
  • O'Connor, J.D. 1952. "RP and the reinforcing glottal stop". English Studies. 33. 214-18
  • Roach, P. 1973. "Glottalization of English /p/, /t/, /k/ and /tʃ/: a reexamination". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 3.1. 10-21.
  • 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 Linguistic Studies 17. Exeter University Press.

English accents

  • Foulkes, P. and Docherty, G. 1999. Urban Voices: accent studies in the British Isles. London: Arnold.
  • Hughes, A. and Trudgill, P. 2005. English Accents and Dialects. Fourth Edition. London: Arnold.
  • Wells, J.C. 1982. Accents of English. Volumes 1-3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[edit] Internet Links

  • [1] Kortlandt, Frederik. Glottalization, Preaspiration and Gemination in English and Scandinavian. Doc PDF.
  • [2] Kortland, Frederik. How Old is the English Glottal Stop?. Doc PDF.
  • [3] Docherty, G. et al. Descriptive Adequacy in Phonology: a variationist perspective. Doc PDF.
  • [4] Kerswill, P. Dialect Levelling and Geographical Diffusion in British English. Doc PDF.
  • [5] Przedlacka, J. Estuary English and RP: Some Recent Findings. Doc PDF.
  • [6] Wells, J.C. Site of the UCL (University College of London) Department of Phonetics and Linguistics. Web documents relating to Estuary English.
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