The Glottal Stop

Brian   Tuesday, November 02, 2004, 22:06 GMT
Is the glottal stop a phoneme? I'd say it is. It occurs in the word ''uh-oh''. Who doesn't use a glottal stop in ''uh-oh''?

See more on why I think it's a phoneme in these threads below,

http://p081.ezboard.com/feuropa2frm40.showMessage?topicID=92.topic

http://p081.ezboard.com/feuropa2frm40.showMessage?topicID=94.topic
Brian   Wednesday, November 03, 2004, 00:38 GMT
Jim says it's not a phoneme even though it occurs in ''uh-oh''. What do you think?
D   Wednesday, November 03, 2004, 03:30 GMT
The IPA chart has a notation for the glottal stop. To that extent,
it is a phoneme. But it isn't a particularly important phoneme for
English because it appears in so few words.
Mxsmanic   Wednesday, November 03, 2004, 19:56 GMT
Some non-standard pronunciations use the glottal stop extensively. I think it sounds rather unpleasant.
Jim   Wednesday, November 03, 2004, 23:48 GMT
"The IPA chart has a notation for the glottal stop. To that extent,
it is a phoneme."

The IPA is not a phoneme list. "IPA" stands for "International Phonetic Alphabet/Association" not "International Phonological Alphabet/Association". This IPA is an alphabet for phones not phonemes.

Of course you can use IPA symbols for phonemes but in the case of English you don't need the entire IPA. For example, the IPA's [y] is not an English phoneme nor is the IPA's [q].

Now /y/ is a phoneme in French and /q/ is a phoneme in Arabic (maybe not all dialects), correct me if I'm wrong, but they're not phonemes of English. That's the difference between phonemes and phones. Phones are independant of languages/dialects whilst phonemes are defined within a language/dialect.

The IPA is an alphabet for phones it contains many symbols for phones which don't exist in English and thus are not phonemes of English.
Paul   Thursday, November 04, 2004, 17:59 GMT
I hear the Glottal stop inside a number of English words. It doesn't sound particularly bad. It is just normal English. For example before the final "i" in Hawai'i.
In Names, like Joelle, it separates and distinguishes the two vowel sounds. Otherwise, Joelle = Joel.
CIA and FBI before the I.
Oh-Oh.
It is also common before the I, when the I sound starts a word.
For instance, the only difference between the pronunciation of the two phrases, "some Ice" and "Some mice" is the addition of a Glottal stop before the I sound of "Some Ice".

It is really not that rare.

Regards, Paul V.
Paul   Thursday, November 04, 2004, 18:01 GMT
Sorry to disagree with you Jim
Brian   Thursday, November 04, 2004, 19:56 GMT
''Sorry to disagree with you Jim''

What do you disagree with Jim about? Do you disagree with Jim that the glottal stop is not phoneme?
Paul   Friday, November 05, 2004, 15:45 GMT
Sorry I wasn't clear.

Previousy, Brian said, that
Jim says it's not a phoneme even though it occurs in ''uh-oh''.

And further, "The IPA chart has a notation for the glottal stop.
To that extent,
it is a phoneme. But it isn't a particularly important phoneme for
English because it appears in so few words. "


Brian said, "What do you think?"
I think the Glottal Stop is a significant Phoneme.
I think it appears in more than a few words. Especially, at the beginning of the word. See my previous message.
Do you need more examples?
Further Discussion?
Further Complaints?

Paul V.