English as a second language--digression on the glottal stop
Readers may think I'm obsessing about this glottal stop thing. Well, yes, maybe, but it is showing itself to be the biggest barrier between me and understanding my new neighbors, so it helps me to read about it. And as part of our mission statement ("an online diary about moving to, living in and traveling in the United Kingdom") I think I need to share with our readers the issues that might arise from communicating with English people.
What is the glottal stop? I described it below as "the swallowed T," although Wikipedia more accurately describes it as "the sound made when the vocal cords are pressed together to stop the flow of air, and is the sound in the middle of the interjection uh-oh."
Do-it-yourself glottal stop: Say the word "but." Now say "uh-oh," (as in, "uh-oh, the vice president just blasted somebody in the face with a shotgun"). Now combine them to say "buh," with the last part of the word cut off abruptly. There: you've said "but" like a good Cockney.
The Wikipedia entry goes on to say:
When I say, "I'm going to town tomorrow," it sounds more like, "I'm going duh town domorrow," so again, I'm not pronouncing it correctly either.
Without a hint of irony, the Wikipedia entry also points out: "With many Yorkshire dialects, a glottalized /t/ is used as a replacement of the word 'the', as shown in the beginning of the Spanish Inquisition sketch by Monty Python, where Graham Chapman states 'There's trouble at t' mill!'."
(OK, everybody say it together: "I don't know - Mr Wentworth just told me to come in here and say that there was trouble at the mill, that's all - I didn't expect a kind of Spanish Inquisition." "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!" Feel better? Good!)
One of the things that's still bugging me still is how the glottal stop came to be used in English dialects, but not in American ones. When I find out, I'll let our readers know.
ADDED at 13:50: Wiser commenters than I have corrected me about the glottal stop in American English. I would say, however, that it seems to me to be more common in Britain than in America, and my question about how it emerged as a replacement to consonants still stands.
What is the glottal stop? I described it below as "the swallowed T," although Wikipedia more accurately describes it as "the sound made when the vocal cords are pressed together to stop the flow of air, and is the sound in the middle of the interjection uh-oh."
Do-it-yourself glottal stop: Say the word "but." Now say "uh-oh," (as in, "uh-oh, the vice president just blasted somebody in the face with a shotgun"). Now combine them to say "buh," with the last part of the word cut off abruptly. There: you've said "but" like a good Cockney.
The Wikipedia entry goes on to say:
in many dialects of English, glottal stop is an allophone of /t/ in final position, as in habit or pat. In dialects such as Cockney and Estuary English, the glottal stop is also an allophone of /t/ in medial position as well, as in bottle or fatter. In East Anglian varieties, glottal stop realisations of /t/ can be found in word-*initial* position, if the /t/ is a) in an unstressed syllable (so is often found in the words 'to', 'today', 'tomorrow') AND is not in tone group-initial position. So in "I'm going to town tomorrow", the /t/ in 'to' and 'tomorrow' are readily realised as glottal stops. In other dialects, a /t/ followed by a syllabic /n/ is often replaced by a glottal stop, as for example in button or fatten. (This may be obscured if the speaker consciously articulates consonants for clarity.) More rarely, glottal stop may be an allophone of /k/ in medial or final position, particularly in the discourse marker 'like'.
When I say, "I'm going to town tomorrow," it sounds more like, "I'm going duh town domorrow," so again, I'm not pronouncing it correctly either.
Without a hint of irony, the Wikipedia entry also points out: "With many Yorkshire dialects, a glottalized /t/ is used as a replacement of the word 'the', as shown in the beginning of the Spanish Inquisition sketch by Monty Python, where Graham Chapman states 'There's trouble at t' mill!'."
(OK, everybody say it together: "I don't know - Mr Wentworth just told me to come in here and say that there was trouble at the mill, that's all - I didn't expect a kind of Spanish Inquisition." "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!" Feel better? Good!)
One of the things that's still bugging me still is how the glottal stop came to be used in English dialects, but not in American ones. When I find out, I'll let our readers know.
ADDED at 13:50: Wiser commenters than I have corrected me about the glottal stop in American English. I would say, however, that it seems to me to be more common in Britain than in America, and my question about how it emerged as a replacement to consonants still stands.
posted by Smitty Werbenmanjensen at 7:05 AM
2 Comments:
northsylvania here.
Rural folks in central Pennsylvania use the glottal stop when saying some things like the and battery (which only has two syllables with the emphasis on the second).
They also use the word redd to mean a surface cleaning as in, "I redd up t' kitchen before t' in-laws came."
I think these usages are Scots, but the people around there are mainly of German descent. Wierd.
I have observed this phenomenon in watching "Changing Rooms" on BBC America, which features a Cockney handyman named Andy. The "yeah" and glottal stops are features of his speech, and sometimes I can't understand a word he's saying.
There's also a glottal stop in the way urban kids (think hip-hop) say "didn't" and "couldn't." There's no way I can type that phonetically, but, the "d" sound gets turned into a glottal. I think you know what I'm talkin' about, you know what I'm sayin', a'ight?
We singers have known about glottal stops for years. Nice to see you cyclists catching up. :)
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