tglottalization

Glottalization is a term in phonetics and phonology that concerns the glottis, the opening between the vocal folds, in the articulation of speech sounds. It covers two broad phenomena: segmental glottalization, in which a consonant is realized with or replaced by a glottal stop, and phonation-based glottalization, where the glottis is constricted during the production of a vowel or consonant, giving creaky voice or a reduced voicing quality. The process can be articulatory (phonetic) or phonological (phonemic in a language).

Segmental glottalization is common in many languages in coda positions; a trailing or final consonant may be replaced by a glottal stop. In English, many speakers substitute a glottal stop for the final /t/ in words like water, bottle, or cat in casual speech. Some languages also exhibit glottalization of other consonants or within syllables as part of phonological patterns. Phonation-based glottalization reduces voicing, often heard as creaky voice, and may accompany vowel or consonant segments without changing the segment’s place of articulation.

Transcriptions typically indicate glottalization with a diacritic after the affected segment or with a superscript glottal stop symbol, such as tʔ or tˀ, depending on the transcription system. The term is sometimes spelled glottalization; “tglottalization” appears to be a typographical variation or error. Glottalization is studied across language families and interacts with other phonation types and prosodic factors such as speech rate and emphasis.