@@AccentHelp The thing about Spanish is that you can even mispronounce many words and yet native Spanish speakers will get you, unlike English. I have bumped into some people that can pass off as Spanish speakers, not the other way around
Is it actually a change in the “strength” of the glottal stop, or is it a change in the volume of the preceding vowel? I played back your example and it sounds a bit like a change in vowel forcefulness with which the vowel is articulated. However, this could simply be from my perception of the sound from the recorded audio. Additionally, I didn’t realize that there even could be different projected intensities for a glottal stop, since I assumed it is merely the closing of the glottis to restrict airflow, an abrupt “absence” of sound being released. How do you go about producing different intensities of a glottal stop?
As I play with it, it's not necessarily about volume/loudness or forcefulness. I'm noticing that I'm tending - with the stronger glottal - to slightly lower my larynx at the same time as the glottal. I don't know yet if that is a "given" element in this, but it's at least a habit I'm falling into when I clearly delineate the two...
Ah I see. That makes sense. Thanks for the explanation! Love your videos, even being a native English speaker it’s fascinating to see the intricacies of what makes each regional dialect/accent unique, as well as English phonology in general.
@@AccentHelp Hm to me it seems like a stronger muscle contraction in the glottis, and there since there isn't a diacritic for that, I think we can just invent a new meaning for an existing one, maybe the length diacritic? Like this ʔː. This makes me think of a similar problem with velarisation in Russian, which can happen to very different degrees, but there is no way to show it. It's either tˠ or t, no inbetween. Maybe we can be even more playful and depict it as a pharyngealized glottal stop ʔˤ ?
Does what I said here in this comment really happen or is my ear just tricking me? In fast speech when there's a "t" followed by a "th" what I hear is neither a glottal stop t nor a th, but only one unaspirated t sound. For instance, in the very common expression "what the f..", what I hear is "whata", and this "t" sounds to me just like the "t" in "stop". Sometimes I also hear this happening in "at the". I hear this only when people speak fast. When they don't speak fast I hear "what the" and "at the" being pronounced with the typical glottal stop plus a true voiced th. I think you talked about it at 6:38 but it's not clear to me if we are talking about the exact same thing, so I thought that would be ok to ask this anyway.
I think we're talking about the same thing. I'd be very surprised if you're really saying that T in "what-the" in the same place as the T in "stop." The "what-the" T is likely more of a T/TH blend, where the T is dulled (moving onto the blade of the tongue instead of the tip) and that it moves more onto the teeth rather than on the gum ridge just above the teeth, where you likely do your "stop" T sound. Both of those T variations are because of the sounds that are around them, which have an effect.
The line under, as a diacritic, means retracted - as in a vowel happening further back in the mouth than the symbol represents, but not far enough to be the symbol that is even further back. Unfortunately that one is taken!
4:21 for the word ( button ) /ˈbʌʔ.n̩/, [ˈbʌʔ.tən] can i make the T like glottal stop back to the throat and for N sound the tip of your tongue doesn't touch alveolar ridge , just the back of the tongue.
"Humans don't speak like that". I do. A Standard Southern British accent aspirates t before stressed vowels and are generally plosive before unstressed ones. Glottal ts are increasingly common even in public school educated folks, generally only at the end of words. Listening to Tom Holland recently, he has a modern SSB accent but with glottal ts within words, whereas Eton educated, RADA trained Hiddleston uses plosives and often heavily stresses aspirated consonants
Hmm, the way you're talking about the glottal stops at the end having more weight/strength/violence, it seems like the variation could also be described as how abruptly the sound is cut off by the stop. Diacritics for vowel length could be used to indicate how short/abrupt/Cockney a stop is, [ʔ̆], versus a longer/smoother/Newcastle stop, [ʔː]. Length might also avoid the variation in perceived pressure/violence from speaking at different volumes. Thoughts, issues?
I like it! It seems almost reverse logic to have shortening on the one that is most strong, as it typically works has a reductive effect, but it's better than any idea I've had - which has been none... Thanks!
I doubt the possibility of devoicing of the flap t. It occurs in the intervocal position - the context, in which devoicing is unnatural, since the flap t is placed between two vowels. Could it be possible that you are talking about another allophonic feature?
Theoretically, /p/ should not be plosive in mispronounce, because it is followed by the sonorant /r/. The rule says that plosives lose aspiration before sonorants.
feeling lucky all these t's are all allophonic, it would be a nightmare having those minimal pairs all over the place. as a non-native speaker of english I can just realize my /t/ as [t] everywhere and still be understood while "sounding funny".
Sometimes I represent the lateral T as an unvoiced tapped-R that is laterally released - but it tends to get a little bit of pressure build up, so it's more plosive-like most of the time, I think.
Absolutely great! I've been learning a lot from Jim. Hope you keep on with your great effort on teaching accents. Blessings!
Amazing content as always, densely informative yet clearly presented... I found it very useful.. thanks for the huge effort
1:35 If I add a sign ( no audible release ) to the letter T , that means held T and stop T.
Amazing how complicated dialect is within a language.
That's what makes English hard, in Spanish these stuff is a slam dunk
@@CHIVA195 Until you get into various Spanish dialects of the language... though I think it's a little more limited in variation than English.
@@AccentHelp The thing about Spanish is that you can even mispronounce many words and yet native Spanish speakers will get you, unlike English. I have bumped into some people that can pass off as Spanish speakers, not the other way around
Your classes are really brilliant
Is it actually a change in the “strength” of the glottal stop, or is it a change in the volume of the preceding vowel? I played back your example and it sounds a bit like a change in vowel forcefulness with which the vowel is articulated. However, this could simply be from my perception of the sound from the recorded audio.
Additionally, I didn’t realize that there even could be different projected intensities for a glottal stop, since I assumed it is merely the closing of the glottis to restrict airflow, an abrupt “absence” of sound being released. How do you go about producing different intensities of a glottal stop?
As I play with it, it's not necessarily about volume/loudness or forcefulness. I'm noticing that I'm tending - with the stronger glottal - to slightly lower my larynx at the same time as the glottal. I don't know yet if that is a "given" element in this, but it's at least a habit I'm falling into when I clearly delineate the two...
Ah I see. That makes sense. Thanks for the explanation!
Love your videos, even being a native English speaker it’s fascinating to see the intricacies of what makes each regional dialect/accent unique, as well as English phonology in general.
@@AccentHelp Hm to me it seems like a stronger muscle contraction in the glottis, and there since there isn't a diacritic for that, I think we can just invent a new meaning for an existing one, maybe the length diacritic? Like this ʔː.
This makes me think of a similar problem with velarisation in Russian, which can happen to very different degrees, but there is no way to show it. It's either tˠ or t, no inbetween.
Maybe we can be even more playful and depict it as a pharyngealized glottal stop ʔˤ ?
Does what I said here in this comment really happen or is my ear just tricking me? In fast speech when there's a "t" followed by a "th" what I hear is neither a glottal stop t nor a th, but only one unaspirated t sound. For instance, in the very common expression "what the f..", what I hear is "whata", and this "t" sounds to me just like the "t" in "stop". Sometimes I also hear this happening in "at the". I hear this only when people speak fast. When they don't speak fast I hear "what the" and "at the" being pronounced with the typical glottal stop plus a true voiced th. I think you talked about it at 6:38 but it's not clear to me if we are talking about the exact same thing, so I thought that would be ok to ask this anyway.
I think we're talking about the same thing. I'd be very surprised if you're really saying that T in "what-the" in the same place as the T in "stop." The "what-the" T is likely more of a T/TH blend, where the T is dulled (moving onto the blade of the tongue instead of the tip) and that it moves more onto the teeth rather than on the gum ridge just above the teeth, where you likely do your "stop" T sound. Both of those T variations are because of the sounds that are around them, which have an effect.
what about a superscript glottal stop (like ʔ but smaller) to represent the lighter glottal stop?
A small reversed one of that means Pharyngealized, so maybe there's something there... Nice.
For the thicker glottal symbol, how about an extra line at the bottom? Would indicate the "heavier" sound needs more support.
The line under, as a diacritic, means retracted - as in a vowel happening further back in the mouth than the symbol represents, but not far enough to be the symbol that is even further back. Unfortunately that one is taken!
4:21 for the word ( button ) /ˈbʌʔ.n̩/, [ˈbʌʔ.tən] can i make the T like glottal stop back to the throat and for N sound the tip of your tongue doesn't touch alveolar ridge , just the back of the tongue.
"Humans don't speak like that". I do. A Standard Southern British accent aspirates t before stressed vowels and are generally plosive before unstressed ones. Glottal ts are increasingly common even in public school educated folks, generally only at the end of words. Listening to Tom Holland recently, he has a modern SSB accent but with glottal ts within words, whereas Eton educated, RADA trained Hiddleston uses plosives and often heavily stresses aspirated consonants
Hmm, the way you're talking about the glottal stops at the end having more weight/strength/violence, it seems like the variation could also be described as how abruptly the sound is cut off by the stop. Diacritics for vowel length could be used to indicate how short/abrupt/Cockney a stop is, [ʔ̆], versus a longer/smoother/Newcastle stop, [ʔː]. Length might also avoid the variation in perceived pressure/violence from speaking at different volumes. Thoughts, issues?
I like it! It seems almost reverse logic to have shortening on the one that is most strong, as it typically works has a reductive effect, but it's better than any idea I've had - which has been none... Thanks!
I doubt the possibility of devoicing of the flap t. It occurs in the intervocal position - the context, in which devoicing is unnatural, since the flap t is placed between two vowels. Could it be possible that you are talking about another allophonic feature?
I haven't come up with a better explanation of it. Perhaps I need to do a video on that sound specifically...
Here's a video I just did on this: th-cam.com/video/2mmNYeLEcmM/w-d-xo.html
Does a prefix ending with S eliminate the aspiration of a word that starts with a plosive sound? For example, is the P in "mispronounce" plosive?
Theoretically, /p/ should not be plosive in mispronounce, because it is followed by the sonorant /r/. The rule says that plosives lose aspiration before sonorants.
It would work the same as I mentioned for the T in words more like POT and SPOT.
@@МарияКайгородова-ч8х I didn't know this rule. Would you be so nice to provide me any links so I can read about it, please?
this is super helpful!
feeling lucky all these t's are all allophonic, it would be a nightmare having those minimal pairs all over the place.
as a non-native speaker of english I can just realize my /t/ as [t] everywhere and still be understood while "sounding funny".
Your lateral t sounds pretty much like your devoiced flap, doesn't it?
Sometimes I represent the lateral T as an unvoiced tapped-R that is laterally released - but it tends to get a little bit of pressure build up, so it's more plosive-like most of the time, I think.