Glottal Stop | Do American Speakers Drop the T? #askHadar

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'.

"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.