Glotální

Glotální refers to a sound produced with the glottis, the space between the vocal cords. In linguistics, glottal sounds are often consonants. The most common glottal consonant is the glottal stop, often represented by the symbol /ʔ/. This sound occurs when the vocal cords are brought together to stop airflow, and then released.

Examples of the glottal stop can be found in many languages. In English, it is often heard as the sound in the middle of "uh-oh" or the sound that replaces the 't' in some pronunciations of words like "butter" or "bottle," especially in certain dialects. It can also occur at the beginning of words followed by a vowel, though it's often less noticeable.

Some languages use the glottal stop as a phoneme, meaning it can distinguish between words that are otherwise identical. For instance, in some Oceanic languages, a glottal stop can change the meaning of a word entirely. Beyond the glottal stop, other glottal articulations exist, such as the glottal fricative, similar to a breathy sigh, and glottalized consonants, where the glottis is closed during the articulation of another consonant. These sounds play a role in the phonemic inventory of various languages around the world.