’unuhw “stop”

A glottal stop is written with the apostrophe [ ’ ]. It is made by briefly closing up the glottis (the space between your vocal cords). This is the sound in the middle of the English word “uh-oh”. A glottal stop is actually heard as a moment of silence between sounds when it is in the middle of the word.

When a glottal stop is at the end of the word, the word is abruptly stopped by closing the glottis. Then you hear a pop of air as the glottis is opened.

In Hul’q’umi’num’, words never begin with a vowel (a, e, i, ou, u). Instead there is always a glottal stop before the vowel.

Many words in English (for example, apple, also, and under) are sometimes pronounced with a glottal stop at the beginning, even though we do not write it. You can feel this for yourself if you put your fingers on your Adam’s apple (tthu xwamlhnulh) and then whisper these words.

Pronunciation Practice