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Glottal stop (letter)
Encyclopedia
The symbol ⟨⟩ is a letter of the Latin alphabet
, used to represent a glottal stop
in several phonetic transcription
schemes, as well as in the alphabets of some languages. A superscript version, ⟨⟩, is also used.
Its shape is based on an enlarged curly apostrophe
⟨’⟩, which is also widely used to represent a glottal stop.
Where the glottal stop character is not available, it is sometimes replaced by a question mark
⟨?⟩, which is also its official representation in SAMPA
, and to which it bears a striking resemblance.
In phonetic transcription as well as in several languages, a single, tall glyph
is used in all situations, with no distinction between uppercase and lowercase. However, in the Chipewyan, Dogrib
, and Slavey
languages, the tall version is only used for the uppercase, and a short version is used for the lowercase.
1.0, only the tall version and superscript version were included. In version 4.1 (2005), an uppercase character was added, and the existing tall glottal stop was redefined as its lowercase. Finally, in version 5.0 (2006) it was decided to separate the cased and caseless usages, assigning separate characters to each. The rationale for this decision can be found here.
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...
, used to represent a glottal stop
Glottal stop
The glottal stop, or more fully, the voiceless glottal plosive, is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. In English, the feature is represented, for example, by the hyphen in uh-oh! and by the apostrophe or [[ʻokina]] in Hawaii among those using a preservative pronunciation of...
in several phonetic transcription
Phonetic transcription
Phonetic transcription is the visual representation of speech sounds . The most common type of phonetic transcription uses a phonetic alphabet, e.g., the International Phonetic Alphabet....
schemes, as well as in the alphabets of some languages. A superscript version, ⟨⟩, is also used.
Its shape is based on an enlarged curly apostrophe
Apostrophe
The apostrophe is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritic mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet or certain other alphabets...
⟨’⟩, which is also widely used to represent a glottal stop.
Where the glottal stop character is not available, it is sometimes replaced by a question mark
Question mark
The question mark , is a punctuation mark that replaces the full stop at the end of an interrogative sentence in English and many other languages. The question mark is not used for indirect questions...
⟨?⟩, which is also its official representation in SAMPA
SAMPA
The Speech Assessment Methods Phonetic Alphabet is a computer-readable phonetic script using 7-bit printable ASCII characters, based on the International Phonetic Alphabet ....
, and to which it bears a striking resemblance.
In phonetic transcription as well as in several languages, a single, tall glyph
Glyph
A glyph is an element of writing: an individual mark on a written medium that contributes to the meaning of what is written. A glyph is made up of one or more graphemes....
is used in all situations, with no distinction between uppercase and lowercase. However, in the Chipewyan, Dogrib
Dogrib language
Dogrib, the English translation of the indigenous name ' , is a Northern Athabaskan language spoken by the First Nations Tłı̨chǫ people of the Canadian territory Northwest Territories...
, and Slavey
Slavey language
Slavey is an Athabaskan language spoken among the Slavey First Nations of Canada in the Northwest Territories where it also has official status....
languages, the tall version is only used for the uppercase, and a short version is used for the lowercase.
Technical transcription
- Americanist phonetic notationAmericanist phonetic notationAmericanist phonetic notation is a system of phonetic notation originally developed by European and American anthropologists and language scientists for the phonetic and phonemic transcription of Native American and European languages...
— either or . - Transcription of Australian Aboriginal languagesTranscription of Australian Aboriginal languagesPrior to the arrival of Europeans, Australian Aboriginal languages had been purely spoken languages, and had no writing system. The Latin alphabet of the colonizers was inevitably used for the transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages, but the details of how the sounds were represented has...
— occasionally . - International Phonetic AlphabetInternational Phonetic AlphabetThe International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...
— only. - Uralic Phonetic AlphabetUralic Phonetic AlphabetThe Uralic Phonetic Alphabet or Finno-Ugric transcription system is a phonetic transcription or notational system used predominantly for the transcription and reconstruction of Uralic languages...
— only.
Vernacular orthographies
- Languages of Canada
- Chipewyan — both and .
- DogribDogrib languageDogrib, the English translation of the indigenous name ' , is a Northern Athabaskan language spoken by the First Nations Tłı̨chǫ people of the Canadian territory Northwest Territories...
— both and . - Kootenai — only.
- Musqueam — only.
- Nootka — only.
- SlaveySlavey languageSlavey is an Athabaskan language spoken among the Slavey First Nations of Canada in the Northwest Territories where it also has official status....
— both and . - NitinahtNitinaht languageDitidaht is a South Wakashan language spoken on the southern part of Vancouver Island. Nitinaht is related to the other South Wakashan languages, Makah and the neighboring Nuu-chah-nulth....
— only. - ThompsonThompson languageThe Thompson language, properly known as Nlaka'pamuctsin or the Nlaka'pamux language, is an Interior Salishan language spoken in the Fraser Canyon, Thompson Canyon, Nicola Country of the Canadian province of British Columbia, and also in the North Cascades region of Whatcom and Chelan counties of...
— only. - LushootseedLushootseedLushootseed is the language or dialect continuum of several SalishNative American groups of modern-day Washington state...
Computing codes
In UnicodeUnicode
Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
1.0, only the tall version and superscript version were included. In version 4.1 (2005), an uppercase character was added, and the existing tall glottal stop was redefined as its lowercase. Finally, in version 5.0 (2006) it was decided to separate the cased and caseless usages, assigning separate characters to each. The rationale for this decision can be found here.
| character | ʔ | ˀ | Ɂ | ɂ | ||||
| Unicode name | LATIN LETTER GLOTTAL STOP |
MODIFIER LETTER GLOTTAL STOP |
LATIN CAPITAL LETTER GLOTTAL STOP |
LATIN SMALL LETTER GLOTTAL STOP |
||||
| character encoding | decimal | hex | decimal | hex | decimal | hex | decimal | hex |
| Unicode Unicode Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems... |
660 | 0294 | 704 | 02C0 | 577 | 0241 | 578 | 0242 |
| UTF-8 UTF-8 UTF-8 is a multibyte character encoding for Unicode. Like UTF-16 and UTF-32, UTF-8 can represent every character in the Unicode character set. Unlike them, it is backward-compatible with ASCII and avoids the complications of endianness and byte order marks... |
202 148 | CA 94 | 203 128 | CB 80 | 201 129 | C9 81 | 201 130 | C9 82 |
| Numeric character reference Numeric character reference A numeric character reference is a common markup construct used in SGML and other SGML-related markup languages such as HTML and XML. It consists of a short sequence of characters that, in turn, represent a single character from the Universal Character Set of Unicode... |
ʔ | ʔ | ˀ | ˀ | Ɂ | Ɂ | ɂ | ɂ |
See also
- AlephAleph* Aleph or Alef is the first letter of the Semitic abjads descended from Proto-Canaanite, Arabic alphabet, Phoenician alphabet, Hebrew alphabet, Syriac alphabet-People:*Aleph , an Italo disco artist and alias of Dave Rodgers...
- ApostropheApostropheThe apostrophe is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritic mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet or certain other alphabets...
- Hamza
- Saltillo (letter)Saltillo (linguistics)In Mexican linguistics, saltillo refers to a glottal stop consonant, . It was given that name by the early grammarians of Classical Nahuatl. In a number of other Nahuatl languages, the sound cognate to Classical Nahuatl’s glottal stop is , and the term saltillo is applied to either pronunciation...
- SokuonSokuonThe is a Japanese symbol consisting of a small hiragana or katakana tsu. In less formal language it is called or , meaning "little tsu". Compare to a full-sized tsu:The sokuon is used for various purposes...
- Spiritus lenisSpiritus lenisThe smooth breathing is a diacritical mark used in polytonic orthography. In ancient Greek, it marks the absence of the voiceless glottal fricative from the beginning of a word....