Wiktionary
n. 1 (context phonetics English) A plosive sound articulated with the glottis. 2 the glottal stop symbol, ʔ
WordNet
n. a stop consonant articulated by releasing pressure at the glottis; as in the sudden onset of a vowel [syn: glottal plosive, glottal catch]
Wikipedia
The glottal stop is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is .
In English, the glottal stop occurs, for example, between the vowel sounds in uh-oh! and in T-glottalization. For most US English speakers, a glottal stop is used as an allophone of between a vowel and "m" (as in atmosphere or Batman) or a syllabic "n" (as in button or mountain) except in slow speech. In British English, the glottal stop is most familiar in the Cockney pronunciation of "butter" as "bu'er".
The sign is called "glottal stop," and it is a letter in some extended Latin alphabets of several languages of Canada. It is not part of the basic Latin alphabet or Classical Latin alphabet. Several phonetic transcription schemes, such as the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), use versions of glottal stop.
Usage examples of "glottal stop".
Charlie became so strangled around the extended glottal stop that he started to choke.
There was an undulating whistling and high-pitched humming from the Evergreen, again intermixed with the smacking sound that was somewhat similar to a glottal stop.
Cursing, he trie d again, this time transposing two vowels and a glottal stop: the lock sprang open.
It was for the sake of our rare speech with the Gentles that we had added the glottal stop to our Naming alphabet all those many years ago.
It took Mike a moment to work out her meaning, slightly because of the shifted glottal stop, more because of the mixture of Tahitian and Samoan, more still because he had not expected such language from the captain, and perhaps mostly because he himself was probably the only person now on Kainui who had ever actually seen a shark and might be expected to mention its entrails as a curse.
The pronunciation gave him trouble at first, but by the end of the week he could lip smack, click, make the fast glottal stop, and hear and say vowel distinctions he had never suspected existed.
These people have contracted a lot of sounds and lost some, and they've even introduced a glottal stop-something that no language needs.
Once when among those rebels in a state of hopelessly helpless intoxication the piscivore strove to lift a czitround peel to either nostril, hiccupping, apparently impromptued by the hibat he had with his glottal stop, that he kukkakould flowrish for ever by the smell, as the czitr, as the kcedron, like a scedar, of the founts, on mountains, with limon on, of Lebanon.