glottal
- adjective
- /ˈɡlɒtəl/
- Specialized
- At the glottal stop halfway through the name, Nandi's right hand flutters near his throat.
- glottal attack
- glottal flow
- glottal gap
I find it so grating to listen to sort of nasal, it's glottal.
- I find it so grating to listen to sort of nasal, it's glottal.
Examples
-
During a persistent cough, the vocal folds are abruptly compressed with a repetitious, forceful glottal attack.
Academic text (2008) -
"Did you hear the glottal stop?" she asks, smiling.
Fiction book (2002) -
The hard glottal attack is created when air pressure builds below the vocal folds.
Academic text (2008) -
Only three (30%) of the ten patients over 20 demonstrated a high occurrence of hard glottal attacks.
Academic text (1995) -
In dialects like Cockney, a glottal stop replaces the sound of the letter 't' in words like 'butter.'
-
The singer's technique included a strong glottal attack that added intensity to her performance.
-
Many linguists study how different languages use glottal sounds to differentiate meaning.
Synonyms
Near the opening of the voice box that helps you make sound
Compounds
- Specialized
A sound you make by briefly stopping and releasing air at your voice box, like the break in 'uh-oh'
- Specialized
A very short sound made by briefly closing and opening the voice box before a vowel
- Specialized
A quick sound made by briefly closing and opening the vocal cords before a vowel
How Low
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Glottal comes from the Greek root glott- meaning 'tongue' or 'language', the same root you see in polyglot ('many languages'). A glottal sound is made at the glottis, the small 'opening' between the vocal cords, so the word points to sounds made in that part of the throat.