" glottal stops " in the British accent

[faryan]

Would you tell me about the " glottal stops " in the British accent? is there a special rule about applying them?

 

[5jj]

Would you tell me about the " glottal stops " in the British accent? is there a special rule about applying them?

That's a very complex issue. They are used quite naturally by some speakers of RP to mark the boundaries of syllables when one syllable ends, and the other starts, with a vowel sound, as in co[FONT=&quot]ʔ[/FONT]ordinate.

Some speakers of RP use it to stress that they are not falling into the trap of the intrusive r, as in law [FONT=&quot]ʔ[/FONT]and order.

Any initial vowel may be stressed with a glottal stop before it. [FONT=&quot]ʔ[/FONT]Anne is [FONT=&quot]ʔ[/FONT]absolutely [FONT=&quot]ʔ[/FONT]adorable.

Those are some of the acceptable uses.

 

[5jj]

There's a little more information here: T-glottalization - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[faryan]

Thanks a million. By the way " The study of language " by George Yule shed some light on it!

 

[konungursvia]

I think the RP example is a smaller one, compared to the various working class dialects that use it to substitute for /t/ every few seconds.

 

[Tdol]

Those glottals are becoming more and more common- the leader of the Labour party uses them, as did Tony Blair on occasions when speaking in the UK- his accent changed for the audience and location.Prince Harry uses them- he sounds very strange to me as he mixes Estuary features like glottals with exaggeratedly long vowel sounds and peppers his speech with street slang. I imagine that the Labour leader might use them less if he were prime minister.

 

[~Mav~]

Would you tell me about the " glottal stops " in the British accent? is there a special rule about applying them?

You may find this video useful.

As a comparison, here is another video about the use of the glottal stop in place of the true t in American English. (What a gorgeous teacher she is! <3 )

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Those glottals are becoming more and more common- the leader of the Labour party uses them...
[...]I imagine that the Labour leader might use them less if he were prime minister.

Apart from those glottals, does Ed Miliband use Received Pronunciation? Of the two leaders (Ed Miliband and David Cameron, the current prime minister), whose accent is "purer"? So far, I have been under the impression that they both use RP, but Tdol's comment has made me (even more) curious. Whose accent do you like better? I like both of those gentlemen's accent, but it doesn't mean too much. :-? :-(

 

[Tdol]

I have read that Ed Miliband's glottals have increased since he became leader of the party. I am not sure whether this is true, but the suggestion is he's trying to sound more one of the people. From what I have heard, he's speaks RP with a few Estuary touches. Cameron is straight RP to my ears. I can't say I have any real preference for the accents.

 

[5jj]

As a comparison, here is another video about the use of the glottal stop in place of the true t in American English. (What a gorgeous teacher she is! <3 )

I wonder if she'd be able to speak if her eyebrows were amputated.

 

[Tdol]

They are the stars of the video. ;-)

 

[faryan]

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Ace! dear ~Mav~ .