The Glottal Stop in German Pronunciation

1. What is a glottal stop?

The glottal stop is a consonant sound produced when the flow of air is stopped by the glottis closing, and then released. Many languages use glottal stops, often much more than in English.http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/knowledge-database/glottal-stop [online] accessed 05 June 2014

In the phonemic transcription of most Language dictionaries the glottal stop will appear as the character /ʔ/

2. Some examples of the use of glottal stop in English

Dropped /t/ in words such as button, butter, What

Hyphen in uh-oh

Tip: Place your fingers on your throat and feel the short sharp release of air when producing a glottal stop.

3. The Glottal Stop in German Pronunciation

The glottal stop in German pronunciation is used

in front of all initial vowels (a, ä, e, i, o, ö, u, ü)

in front of word stems beginning with a vowel

ʔ

ʔ

The glottal stop in front of initial vowels

• Alle alten Autos fahren in Amsterdam.• Er änderte alles• Zwei ungewöhnliche Esel stehen am alten

Zaun.• Ein Otter isst gerne Fisch.• In Ulm und um Ulm und

um Ulm herum.

The glottal stop in front of word stems beginning with a vowel

• bearbeiten (to work, to process)• sich beeilen (to hurry)• beenden (to end, to finish)• anerkennen (to recognise)• Interaktiv (interactive)

The glottal stop can change meaning

• Spiegelei or Spiegelei

• vereist or verreist?

Das Ende

Acknowledgements Photo of two donkeys

http://communio.stblogs.org/index.php/2012/04/palm-sunday-the-donkey-and-the/ Frozen wild flowers

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wheatfields/4207798113/