Hi, Hadar.
I'm recording this audio to ask you about
glottal stop consonants in American English.
Because I noticed many American speakers say,
like, "What (do you) want to know about me?"
Or "Let me know."
See?
Like, this sound is disappearing.
How to pronounce it correctly?
Thank you.
Okay.
Great question.
So, the T sound that is disappearing is called a
held T - a T that appears before a consonant.
And one of the ways to pronounce it is
with a glottal stop.
So, the glottal stop is not a sound in English,
but it's a way to pronounce the held T.
Let me explain again.
Let's begin with a held T.
Like I said, the T that appears before a
consonant is a held T, that means that it's
not being released.
If we usually think of a T as a /t/ sound, the
tip of the tongue goes up and the air is released
through the mouth.
'get me'.
"Get me some coffee".
'get me'.
So I bring the tongue up, block the air, but instead
of releasing it - 'geT me', because it's kind
of like extra work for the tongue - the tongue
just stays up there.
And the mouth articulates the next sound.
'Get me'.
"Get me some coffee".
'White cat'.
'white' - the tongue is up - 'cat'.
Now, what I did now is I brought the tip
of the tongue up and I blocked the air inside.
When people hear that, they associate it with
the T sound, a held T.
And again, you can only use it when the T is
that the end of words - 'get', or before another
consonant - 'get me'.
Now, what happens is that people start associating
this held sound with the T, right, this abrupt
stop of air - 'get me'.
But I don't have to bring the tip of the tongue
up to block the air.
There was another way to do it.
And that is the glottal stop.
A glottal stop is when the air is stopped in
your larynx, which is your voice box, where the vocal
folds are, where the voice is created and vibrates.
Right?
So basically, there are muscles there
that close and open to allow air to come in.
When the air comes in or comes through, the vocal
chords start vibrating, and then the voice is
moving towards the space of the mouth, and then
it resonates there.
So actually, if I stop my breath here: uh, uh,
uh, that's the sound I'm hearing, uh, uh, uh.
I'm closing the entrance of the air here.
Uh, uh, uh - that is a glottal stop.
It happens in the glottis.
This is why it's called the glottal stop.
Glottal.
Now, because it's an abrupt stop of
air too, this sound is also associated
with the held T.
So, if I want to say "get me", I can do it
here - 'get me', but I can also stop my breath here:
'get'me', get', 'get'me'.
So, it's not that one is better than the other.
Here, it's sometimes easier for some people:
'get me', 'cat'.
Right?
I stopped my breath here, but there
isn't one way that is better than the other.
And also, having said that, releasing the
T at the end of words or before another
consonant is also great.
You're still going to sound clear.
If you say 'geT me', nothing's going to happen.
It's not going to affect your flow, your fluency.
And it's definitely not going to affect
your pronunciation and clarity, right?
So this is the fancy stuff.
When we talk about pronunciation, there
is the essential things that we need to work
on - the things that help you become clearer.
And there's this fancy stuff that is
all about the nuances and the fine tuning.
That, you know, it's fun and it's
important to know, but it's not crucial.
So if you don't get it right, don't
worry about it.
And don't psych yourself out over it.
Okay?
One more place where we can find that glottal
stop is when there is a T, a schwa and an N, as
in the word "kitten".
Now, I can release the air through the
nose - 'kitten', because I don't really
pronounce the T here.
But a glottal stop can help me make the
sound a little shorter and quicker: 'kitt'n'
- 'kit' - glottal stop, and then an N - 'kitt'n'.
"Manhattan".
"forgotten".
So, this is where glottal stop can actually help
us, if we struggle with pronouncing the nasal
T, like 'forgotten'.
And we don't wanna pronounce the full T
here - 'forgoTTen'.
Even though it's completely fine and
great and clear, if you release the T here.
Okay?
So, I hope this answers your question, Oksana.
I hope that it helped you understand whether or not
you should prioritize the sound, based on your needs
and based on your time that you have available
to practice, and based on what you feel like.
Because we have to make it fun, too.
So if it's fun, I recommend creating lists
and lists of words where the T is at the end,
the T is before another consonant, and where the T
is before a reduced vowel and an N - like "kitten".
And drill it in words, phrases, and sentences.
And that is going to help you own that sound.
Okay.
And now your task if you're watching
this, is to write one word in the comments
that has a held T.
Let's see if you got it.