Glottal stop

Glottal stop is the common denomination of a Consonne of which description in articulatory Phonétique is the deaf Occlusive glottale, noted in International Phonetic Alphabet, in the traditional transcription of the Semitic languages and “ in the alphabet hawaiien (sign named `okina) and the majority of the other Polynesian languages. It is sometimes a apostrophizes that one employs in the place of these the last two signs.

Importance of this consonant in the writing

The consonant is the first in the alphabetical order called “Levantine” (in which one starts with or has , B , G or C , D , etc) of many Semitic writings (Arabic alphabet, Hebrew alphabet, Alphabet phenician, etc). In counterpart, the first place, in the Western alphabets, is occupied by the letter noting /a/.

The first alphabet using the order Levantine, ancestor for the principle, but not for the layout of the letters, all the other alphabets using such an order (approximately those going down from the Alphabet phenician: Greek alphabet ─ from where Etruscan Alphabet then Latin alphabet, Cyrillic alphabet, Alphabet gotic, Copt alphabet; Aramean alphabet from where Hebrew alphabet, syriaque Alphabet, Arabic alphabet, etc) is the ougaritic Alphabet, which is a writing Cunéiforme.

In this alphabet (in fact a Abjad, i.e. only the consonants are noted), which one has several alphabetical shelves (which give the Graphème S in an established order; a shelf of 1955 found with Ougarit even gives, although incompletely, the equivalent in Akkadien, model of ougaritic), the first letter is a glottal stop (now noted ). The alphabet ougaritic not being however able to only represent the consonant , the first letter is and not (from where the additional signs added at the end of the alphabet for and ). According to John Healey (cf bibliography), , and could be even used to sometimes note , and , more rarely of pure vowels.

The Phéniciens, taking again this order in their alphabet (other abjad which derives, as for him, for the layout of the letters of a model badly attested named Proto-sinaïtique, which comes apparently from a simplification of the layout of some Hiéroglyphe S), placed also at the head of alphabet the consonant while getting rid of the syllabic notation (from where disappearance of and ). This letter, evolving/moving in various ways, remained the first of the Semitic writings: Hebrew א, ا in Arabic (the role of this letter however changed during the centuries: the glottal stop is now noted by ء, Hamza ), ܐ into syriaque, etc

However, Greeks, while creating their alphabet from letters phéniciennes, could to satisfy with abjad (indeed, if it is possible to write the Semitic Langues without the vowels because the grammar of these languages rather easily makes it possible to restore them, it is impossible for the Indo-European Langues). They thus used the supernumerary consonants of the phenician, of which the glottal stop, absent from the Greek, for their vowels. Thus the first letter phenician became Α in Greek, noting /a/. This last value was transmitted to all the derived alphabets (and in particular the Etruscan Alphabet then the Latin alphabet), which explains why the Semitic alphabets begin with while it is a /a/ in Europe.

This letter for /a/ is called in Greek. This name, which does not indicate anything in this language, is directly borrowed from the Semitic languages, which named the letter according to the pictographic layout at the origin of the eye proto-sinaitic then phenician, by principle acronymic (one keeps only the first sound of the noted word, as if one used O for his /r/ of “round”). In the beginning, this letter represented an ox head, which said in the model borrowed by the Greeks (according to John F. Healey), (according to Theodor Nöldeke) or according to Pierre Swiggers. The Hebrew name massoretic is , that of the Arab .

Articulatory phonetics

The implied occlusive bodies are the vocal Cords, the Glotte closing themselves and reopening themselves abruptly to stop the flow of air which passes there (the process is very close to what it occurs before a coughing fit). It is occlusive the deepest which can emit a human gosier. With the lower part, there do not exist any more occlusive bodies.

Normally, any glottal stop must be not voiced: voicing being a tightening of the vocal cords in order to make them vibrate, it is not possible, at the same time, to bring them closer then to draw aside them all while making them vibrate one against the other. There however exists a language, the Gimi (in New Guinea-News-Guinea) having a form of glottal stop voiced, transcribed. The phonetist Peter Ladefoged announces that rather than occlusive, it is acted in fact of a Spirante. It would thus have to be transcribed: a word like (better: ), “many”, contains the two alternatives.

Phonology

Paralinguistic use

This occlusive is very frequent, in many languages, which however use it like marks Paralinguistique. One frequently meets it in this case in front of a word with initial vocalic, where it indicates insistence then, the surprise, the embarrassment: for example, in French oh oh! can be marked, with a clear cut between the two, or He! which, pronounced with emphase, is carried out.

One can also find such a glottal stop at the end of the word in an energetic pronunciation: English No! .

Linguistic use

Like nonrelevant unit

The glottal stop very often meets like Allophone or appears only in strict contexts. In these cases, it is not a Phonème.

In German and Dutch

A language like the German makes precede all Morphème with initial vocalic (except the Désinence S and the Suffixe S of derivation) by occlusive a glottale, which makes it possible to separate the Affixe S from the radical to initial vocalic which follows them. The glottal stop is thus not a relevant feature there: die Entehrung , “dishonor”, is carried out, with a glottal stop between the article die and the initial one of the word like between the prefix ent- and the initial vowel of the topic Ehrung . It is an obligatory mechanism and it is not possible to find a Minimal pair opponent, for example, an initial group with a group. In Dutch, the glottal stop fits only between the morphemes into initial vocalic inside a word and after /a/ and/ə/. There is thus no glottal stop at the beginning of mot.

One can summarize that by saying that in German and Dutch there does not exist any real Hiatus: there is always a consonant, between two vowels. In German, moreover, no word can start with a vowel. Ein , “one”, is thus analyzed. However, all that arose only with phonetics. Phonologiquement, the glottal stop is not a consonant in these two languages because its distribution is fixed. It allows some oppositions of lexemes however, like vereisen , “to freeze” (compound of worm and eisen ) and verreisen , “to leave on a journey”. The presence of the glottal stop makes it possible to identify the morphemes.

In Mandarin and Vietnamese

In Mandarin (but not for all the linguists) and in Vietnamese, all Syllabe necessarily starts with a consonant, among which the glottal stop in the absence of any other consonant. As this glottal stop exists only in this position, it does not constitute a phoneme (same manner as in German):

Mandarin: 愛 ài , “to like” =/ài/=.
Vietnamese: O , “umbrella” =/ō/=.

This phenomenon is very developed in Vietnamese: any syllable begins indeed diachroniquement by a glottal stop. That explains why the sound Occlusive S are injective: bà analyzes phonologiquement /b with but is carried out. Indeed, is only the resultant expected from; the sequence passes to (pre-glottalisé /b/), which evolves/moves naturally in (/b/ injective). This glottal stop in front of other consonants, however, amuït.

In Danish

The Stød of the Danish, characteristic Suprasegmental E present inside a Syllable and according to a vowel, which appears like a form of cracked Voix or Laryngalisation, is sometimes carried out like a glottal stop, when the laryngalisation leads to the closing of the glottis.

Historically, it is the transformation of the Pitch of the Scandinavian Langues which gave rise to the stød .

In French

French, by naming it '' H '' “aspired”, has also a linguistic glottal stop, which is only with initial vocalic certain words presenting to the writing a H (but not exclusively: certain words begin with a vowel preceded by a H “aspired”, like eleven ); this H aspired appears normally only by the absence of Liaison which it involves with the preceding word (one also speaks about Disjonction; to consult Psilose for details which would exceed the framework of this talk), absence which can be accentuated by a glottal stop in front of vowel but generally expresses in front of consonant (where it seems one of the means of marking disjunction): the children but the hedgehogs (with H aspired) (even in a faster diction), accentuated in when one wants to insist on disjunction and especially small axe , realized (or, with a '' E '' null and void in the South of France) because the cut would not mark.

In English

In many dialects English, the glottal stop is a Allophone of /t/ in final position (it is thus not phonological). It is historically the evolution of the nonDésocclusion of this consonant in final position. For example, dress , “practice” or cat , “cat”, can be realized respectively, (without désocclusion) or and, or.

Moreover, in dialects like the Cockney, the glottal stop is also an allophone of /t/ between vowels (or consonants vocalized) bottle , “bottle”, or; fatter , “fattier”, or.

Like phoneme

As a relevant phoneme, occlusive the glottale is present in many languages:

Semitic Languages:

Arab: شَيْء šayʾ , “thing”,
Esperanto: homo, Hebrew “man”,
: אַל, negation ,
Maltese (written by means of the letter Q ): triq , “road”,

Amharique: ስብአ säbʾä , “people”;
certain African languages:

Haoussa : ā' ā̀, “not”,
Ngbaka: , “to climb”,

Persan: دعوا, “to quarrel”;
Thai: ขณะที่, “while”;
Tukang besi : ' oloo , “day”;
a great number of Polynesian Languages of which the Hawaii `IEN: Hawaii `I , “Hawaii”;
Turkish: such' in , “denunciation” (the glottal stop does not belong to the phonological system of Turkish. He meets in some loanwords to the Arab and is now only seldom marked);
Nahuatl : pâhzotl , “caterpillar”
cheyenne: my' eno , “tortoise”;
Peul : fiʼi , “struck”;
cherokee : ᏔᎵᏁ taline , “second”, etc

It is also necessary to note the case of the Classical Arabic which, as opposed to what one can often read, does not seem to have fricative pharyngal sound a {{APIb|[ʕ]}} (that which one notes by the letter ع, ʿayn , in the writing and that one transcribes by), but occlusive a glottale pharyngalized accompanied by a movement of retraction of the root of the language, which one can analyze. The classical Arabic thus has two occlusive glottales, and. For example:

هٰؤُلاَءِ hāʾulāʾi , “these… here (female)”;
عَلِي ʿAlī , “Ali” (first name).

This complex question is described in detail in the article Phonologie of Arabic .

Lastly, as in other languages, Arabic is characterized by the impossibility which exists to make begin a syllable by a vowel. In the absence of another consonant, it is a glottal stop which plays this part. With the difference in the other languages, this glottal stop can amuïr (to consult Écriture of the hamza ).

Notice

When the glottal stop accompanies another sound and constitutes some an basic element and nonindependent, one speaks about a sound glottalized . Thus, the consonants éjective S and Injective S utilize the glottal stop.

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