CC BY
29
UDK 004.02:004.5:004.9
Nomozova S.A. third-year student of the faculty of English -1 Samarkand State Institute of Foreign Languages
Uzbekistan Tohirova D.M. third-year student of the faculty of English -1 Samarkand State Institute of Foreign Languages
Uzbekistan
THE HISTORY AND PECULIARITIES OF GLOTTAL STOP IN
ENGLISH
Abstract: The below given paper aims to analyze one of the phonetic phenomenons of the English language- glottal stop, its origin, phonetic features, its usage by different-aged generations in different fields
Key words: Glottal stop, plosive, dialects, upper class, proto-Germanic, Danish, glottis, germination
Research on glottal replacement (in the following the terms like glottaling, glottalisation, glottal stop carry the same meanings) has demonstrated that it is one of the most dramatic, wide-spread and rapid changes to have occurred in English in recent times. In phonetics, a glottal stop is a stop sound made by briskly closing the vocal cords. The term has been discussed and described by different linguists variably so far. For instance, Arthur Hughes describes the glottal stop as "a form of plosive in which the closure is made by bringing the vocal folds together, as when holding one's breath (the glottis is not a speech organ, but the space between the vocal folds)" ("English Accents and Dialects", 2013). The term is also called a glottal plosive. In "Authority in Language" (2012), James and Lesley Milroy point out that the glottal stop appears in limited phonetic contexts. For example, in many dialects of English it can be heard as a variant of the /t/ sound between vowels and at the ends of words, such as metal, Latin, bought, and cut (but not ten, take, stop, or left). The use of the glottal stop in place of another sound is called glottalling. "The glottal stop is inside us all," says David Crystal, "part of our phonetic ability as human being. (David Crystal, "A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics", 1997)
Numerous scholars considered the origin of this phenomenon, in particular Christophersen, O'Connor, Anatoly Liberman. According to their investigations, pre-glottalization dates back to 1860 in only a few dialects of Western Scotland. Additionally, they discovered that existence of glottal stop was more widespread than they could imagine on the ground of the pre-1930 radio recordings, with
more trend in upper class. The theory of the borrowing of The English from the Danish was on the rise as well. In accordance with this view, English glottal stop is not innovation, but a retention, therefore the initial English glottal stop was hardly distinctive, became unnoticed for a long time. That is attributed to the fact that just as in the several dialects of Danish, the primitive English glottalization occurred before the plosive sounds like k, p, t. Invariably, proto-Germanic languages possessed their own sounds before which precedes glottal stop, like b, d, g and they connected the origin of glottal stop with another phonetic phenomenon which is called germination in proto- Germanic languages. these above exemplifies importance of reexamining the time and the origin of this phenomenon. Looking at the recent trends, glottal replacement has become ubiquitous in the British Isles in the twenty first century. Glottal replacement may have started as a stereotype of urban speech but such it is becoming more widespread within all layers of society.
Glottal stop, in phonetics, a momentary check on the airstream caused by closing the glottis (the space between the vocal cords) sharply and thereby stopping the vibration of the vocal cords. Upon release, there is a slight and unnoticed choke, or Cough-like explosive sound. The glottal stop is not a separate phoneme (or any distinctive sound) in English, though it is one of the allophones of the t phoneme in some dialects (as in Cockney or Brooklynese "bo'l" for "bottle"). It functions as an individual phoneme in numerous other languages, however, such as Arabic and many American Indian languages. The process of momentary partial or complete closure of the glottis is known as glottalization. The closure may occur slightly before the primary articulation, simultaneously with it, or slightly after it. Several African and American Indian languages have glottalized stops and sibilants, and many languages also have glottalized not only consonants, but vowels as well.
As far as the occurrence of glottaling is concerned, it is omnipresent in our speeches: they can be used in single-syllable words, multisyllabic words, and phrases as in the following:
1. words: light, flight, put, trip, report
2. multisyllabic words: stoplight, apartment, backseat, assortment, workload, upbeat, rightly, witness, Scotland, Britpop, hitman, setback, clipboard, background, Latvia, fitness, button (germination in most cases poses glottalisation) cotton, kitten, Clinton, continent, forgotten, sentence
3. phrases: right now, talk back, cook the cakes, hot mail, fax machine, back-breaking, it was that thing cat flap right side shot stopper
Nowadays younger speakers of various forms of British English have glottal stops at the ends of words such as cap, cat, and back. A generation or so ago would have regarded such a pronunciation as improper and inappropriate almost as bad as producing a glottal stop between vowels in the London Cockney pronunciation of butter or bottle. In America, nearly everybody has a glottal stop in the words like button and bitten. (Peter Ladefoged, "Vowels and Consonants:
An Introduction to the Sounds of Languages, Vol. 1", 2nd ed., 2005) Pop singers in most cases fall into the habit of overusing Glottal Stops and it can end up sounding terrific. Glottal Stops are useful tools that every singer should keep in singer's Tool Kit. (vocal techniques that singers develop over time to use to help them express a song the way the following wants to express)
The glottal stop tends to appear where there is a /t/, though it is also possible as /p/ and /k/ - it largely depends on the accent of the speaker of English. GB English speakers may also use a glottal stop for /p/ and /k/ if the next sound is made in the same place of the mouth:
• stop me, background, top buy, stop it
It should be mentioned though, for all the examples above given, that when a speaker is producing very precise, slow speech, the glottal stop might not be omitted:
• Scotland, cat flap, background
Possibly the most notable feature of the glottal stop is the inconsistent way native speakers use it. It is difficult to give a rule for any particular accent because everybody from Cockneys in East London to the Royal Family in Buckingham Palace will use it differently and a little bit randomly in their speech. Cockney speakers love glottal stops, they use them for /t/, /p/ and /k/: Blackboard, daughter, waiting, tricky
Although the glottal stop is most noticeable when it replaces /t/, it is also widely used before a stressed vowel sound to add emphasis:
although [?o:'d9u] go over [gsu '?9uv9] reentry [ri:'?entri] This extends to connected speech where some speakers might use a linking /r/ sound, others put a glottal stop:
pour onto [po: '?ratu] instead of /po:r 'ratu/ fire engine ['fAis ?en3in] instead of /'faisr en3in/ extra energy [ekstrs '?ensd3i] instead of /ekstrsr 'ensd3i/ The glottal stop is not a separate sound (phoneme) in English, so you don't need to use it in order to produce the entire range of English vocabulary. It is, however, a very distinguishable feature of English accents, so learners who are aiming to produce British pronunciation in connected speech need to know how and when to produce it
References:
1. Peter Roach. English Phonetics and Phonology. Cambridge University Press, 2006
2. Martin Hewings. Pronunciation Practice Activities. Cambridge University Press, 2004
3. David Crystal. The Encyclopedia of the English Language. London, 2000.
4. A.C.Gimson. An Introduction to the pronunciation of English. London, 2000.
5. Jones D. An Outilne of English Phonetics. Cambridge, 1960.
6. Kingdon R. The Groudwork of English Intonation. London, 1958.
7. Crystal D. Prosodic Systems and Intonation in English. Cambridge, 1969.
8. Gimson A.C. An Introduction to the Pronunciation of English. Edward Arnold, 1972.
9. Kingdon R. English Intonation Practice. London, 1958, p. XXIII
