Glottal consonant

In today's world, Glottal consonant has become a topic of great relevance and constant debate. With the advancement of technology and the constant evolution of society, Glottal consonant has acquired a fundamental role in various fields, from politics and economics to culture and entertainment. Throughout history, Glottal consonant has been the subject of study, analysis and discussion, leading to a wide range of opinions and perspectives on its importance and impact on everyday life. In this article, we will explore the different facets of Glottal consonant and its impact on the modern world, as well as the implications it has for the future.

Glottal consonants are consonants using the glottis as their primary articulation. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the glottal fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have, while some[who?] do not consider them to be consonants at all. However, glottal consonants behave as typical consonants in many languages. For example, in Literary Arabic, most words are formed from a root C-C-C consisting of three consonants, which are inserted into templates such as /CaːCiC/ or /maCCuːC/. The glottal consonants /h/ and /ʔ/ can occupy any of the three root consonant slots, just like "normal" consonants such as /k/ or /n/.

The glottal consonants in the International Phonetic Alphabet are as follows:

IPA Description Example
Language Orthography IPA Meaning
ʔ glottal stop Hawaiian okina ʻOkina
ɦ breathy-voiced glottal fricative Czech Praha Prague
h voiceless glottal fricative English hat hat
ʔ͡h voiceless glottal affricate Yuxi dialect 'can, may'
ʔ̞ voiced glottal approximant Gimi [example needed]

Characteristics

In many languages, the "fricatives" are not true fricatives. This is a historical usage of the word. They instead represent transitional states of the glottis (phonation) without a specific place of articulation, and may behave as approximants. is a voiceless transition. is a breathy-voiced transition, and could be transcribed as . Lamé is one of very few languages that contrasts voiceless and voiced glottal fricatives.

The glottal stop occurs in many languages. Often all vocalic onsets are preceded by a glottal stop, for example in German (in careful pronunciation; often omitted in practice). The Hawaiian language writes the glottal stop as the ‘okina , which resembles a single open quotation mark. Some alphabets use diacritics for the glottal stop, such as hamza ء in the Arabic alphabet; in many languages of Mesoamerica, the Latin letter ⟨h⟩ is used for glottal stop, in Maltese, the letter ⟨q⟩ is used, and in many indigenous languages of the Caucasus, the letter commonly referred to as heng ⟨Ꜧ ꜧ⟩ is used.[citation needed]

Because the glottis is necessarily closed for the glottal stop, it cannot be voiced. So-called voiced glottal stops are not full stops, but rather creaky voiced glottal approximants that may be transcribed . They occur as the intervocalic allophone of glottal stop in many languages. Gimi contrasts /ʔ/ and /ʔ̞/, corresponding to /k/ and /ɡ/ in related languages.

See also

References

  • Grønnum, Nina (2005), Fonetik og fonologi, Almen og Dansk (3rd ed.), Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag, ISBN 87-500-3865-6
  • Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19814-8.