← Glossary · phonology
Glottal stop
· from English
What is a glottal stop?
A glottal stop is a brief closure of the vocal cords that cuts off airflow, like the catch in the middle of English uh-oh.
It is a consonant in many languages even though English barely treats it as one. Malay and Indonesian often pronounce final k as a glottal stop, Taiwanese Hokkien has syllables ending in a glottal stop written -h, and some Vietnamese tones (ngã, nặng) are glottalised. It is also the sound of Japanese small っ at the end of an exclamation.
Examples
Malay tidak (no) said tida[ʔ]; Hokkien 肉 bah (meat) ending in a glottal stop; English uh-oh
Kungfucius says: The sound of a consonant that gave up halfway through.