Glottal /ʔ/

This consonant sound doesn’t occur in many English words. However, it’s very noticeable. For that matter, it makes a lot of sense to learn to pronounce it correctly. You’ll sound very American 😊. In this video, you’ll find out how to make the glottal ’T’ /ʔ/ consonant, and when and why it’s used in words. You’ll practice making this sound with a pronunciation exercise recorded by a professional speech therapist. Just so you know, we have a website: Quick Links: • Consonant sound Glottal /ʔ/, as in “button:“ 00:00 • Glottal ’T’ vs “Regular“ ’T’ : 00:19 • What is a Glottal ’T’ sound? 01:19 • When does the Glottal ’T’ occur? 01:38 • Why do Americans pronounce the Glottal ’T’? 02:12 • How to make the Glottal /ʔ/ sound: 02:42 • Pronunciation exercise: 05:47 Related Videos: #AmericanPronunciation #ConsonantSounds #StopSounds ► Stop Sounds Overview ► Consonant Sound Flap ’T’ /t̬/ as in “water“ ► Consonant Sound /t/ as in “toy“ ► Consonant Sound /d/ as in “dog“ ► Consonant Sound /p/ as in “pie“ ► Consonant Sound /b/ as in “boy“ ► Consonant Sound /k/ as in “key“ ► Consonant Sound /ɡ/ as in “gift“ [THIS VIDEO HAS ENGLISH, CHINESE, JAPANESE, VIETNAMESE, AND PORTUGUESE SUBTITLES] --------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRANSCRIPT Hello there! This is the “Sounds American“ channel. In this video, we’re going to talk about the glottal ’T’ sound, as in the word “button.“ You can also hear this sound in words like “certain,“ “satin,“ “cotton“ or “kitten.“ Now listen to how these words sound with the “regular“ ’T’. Can you hear a difference? In American English, these words are pronounced with the glottal ’T.’ It’s not a mistake to use a “regular“ ’T’ sound. Don’t worry, you’ll be perfectly understood. Still, the glottal ’T’ is typical for American English. So if you want to learn more about this sound and perfect your pronunciation skills, keep watching. OK, let’s begin with a question: what is a glottal ’T’ sound? If you watched the Stop Sounds Overview video, you may remember that there are six stop consonants in American English. Still, we’re now talking about another stop sound. Yes, that’s right. The glottal ’T’ is a variation of the /t/ sound that occurs only in a certain position in a word and is pronounced in a different way. What happens is that the /t/ sound becomes a glottal ’T’ before a weak syllable ending with /n/: “button.“ Why does a “regular“ /t/ become a glottal ’T’? Informal speech is usually very relaxed. So, it’s natural to swallow or drop vowels in weak syllables. Let’s get back to our example, the word “button“: /ˈbʌt·ən/ The last vowel could be dropped: /ˈbʌt·n̩/ But you still need to link the /t/ and the /n/ sounds. It’s easier to stop the air in your throat and quickly direct it through your nose for the /n/: /ˈbʌʔ·n̩/ That’s essentially how the glottal ’T’ sound works. Now let’s find out how to make this sound. 1. First, we’ll learn to link the “regular“ ’T’ sound and the /n/ consonant, without a vowel in between. Split the word “button“ into two parts and pronounce them separately. Do it as slowly as you need. Don’t rush it at this point: /ˈbʌt/ - /n/, /ˈbʌt/ - /n/, /ˈbʌt/ - /n/ Next, try and link the /t/ and the /n/ by reducing the pause between them. Don’t remove the pause completely, though, just make it shorter: /ˈbʌt·n̩/, /ˈbʌt·n̩/, /ˈbʌt·n̩/ 2. Next, let’s learn how to make our glottal ’T’ sound. We’ll start by doing a small exercise to catch or stop the air in your throat, using the common American expression: “uh-oh.“ Learning this will help you to make the glottal ’T’ in the next step. Make sure that you pause between the sounds when you say “uh-oh.“ You can do this by holding your breath for a moment with the muscles of your throat. Try it: “uh-oh,“ “uh-oh,“ “uh-oh.“ 3. Now we’ll replace the /t/ in the word “button“ with a glottal ’T.’ We’ll pronounce the glottal ’T’ the same way as we did with “uh-oh.“ Here’s how you do it: • First, stop and hold the air in your throat on the glottal ’T.’ • Then make the /n/ sound Don’t forget to leave a short pause between the glottal ’T’ and the /n/ sound. If you pronounce them too quickly, it’ll sound wrong. Let’s try saying the word “button“ using the same melody as in “uh-oh.“ • button • accountant • beaten • bitten • botany • brighten • certain • cotton • curtain • eaten • fatten • flatten • forgotten • fountain • frighten • gotten • Hilton • important • kitten • Latin • maintenance • mittens • mountain • mutton • remittance • rotten • satin • smitten • sweeten • written