Glottal Stop: ’ ’unuhw

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

’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.

‘fish spear’
‘plate’
‘black bear’
‘four’

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.

‘wolf’
‘snow’
‘to get there’
‘bald eagle’

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.

‘to call him/her’
‘to walk’
‘happy’
‘to sweep’

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

‘mosquito’
‘face’
‘butter clam’
‘to get scared’
‘wolf’
‘fish spear’
‘to get there’
‘sacred’
‘to be ashamed’
‘to call him/her’
‘bald eagle’
‘to get aboard’
‘to be slow, late’
‘to give to him/her’
‘to walk’
‘happy’
‘to sweep’
‘to sit down’
‘grandchild’
‘ten’
‘snake’
‘to eat’
‘no, not’