The Glottal T: Hunting Batman’s Butler

In today’s lesson, I’m going to teach you about the Australian English Glottal T.

Have a listen to the following words and see if you can hear a hard /t/ sound?

• Hunting – /ˈhɐnʔən/
• Batman – /ˈbæʔˈmæn/
• Butler – /ˈbɐʔlɐ/
• Flatmate – /ˈflæʔmæɪt/
• Catwoman – /ˈkæʔwʊmən/
• Forgetful – /fəˈgeʔfəl/

The Australian English Glottal T (or ‘Glottal stop’) is like the consonant sound in the phrase ‘uh oh’ or ‘uh uh!’, where the sound coming out of the mouth is stopped by your vocal cords or ‘glottis’ in your throat.

The Glottal T is also a stop consonant, but different from other stop consonants like /k/, /p/, /t/, /g/, /b/, and /d/ because the airflow is stopped by the vocal cords instead of in the mouth by the lips or tongue.

The IPA symbol for the glottal stop is similar to a question mark, /ʔ/, however, there’s no specific letter for it in English spelling.

It takes the place of the letter T in certain situations, which we’ll go through shortly.

Let’s have another listen to those previous examples and how the hard /t/ in the root words becomes a glottal T:

• Hunt – /hɐnt/
• Hunting – /ˈhɐnʔən/

• Bat – /bæt/
• Batman – /ˈbæʔˈmæn/

• But – /bɐt/
• Butler – /ˈbɐʔlɐ/

• Flat – /flæt/
• Flatmate – /ˈflæʔˌmæɪt/

• Cat – /kæt/
• Catwoman – /ˈkæʔˌwʊmən/

• Forget – /fəˈget/
• Forgetful – /fəˈgeʔfəl/

For the linguist nerds: glottal stops are often used at the front of words that start with vowel sounds, e.g. or, on, at. The vocal cords (glottis) will close in order to build up pressure, and then release the pressure to start the word. Listen to when you say the words “or”, “on” or “at” out loud. Can you feel how before you say the vowel sounds at the start of these words, you close your glottis and build up a little bit of pressure before saying each word? Cool, huh?! So, when you say phrases like “uh oh” or “uh uh”, actually, each syllable is starting with a glottal stop, it’s not just between the syllables.

What you’re going to feel is that the airflow is stopped in the throat where the T should be pronounced. That’s how you know you’re doing it right.

What’s the rule?

There are 4 rules for when a /t/ will become a glottal stop in Australian English.

The /t/ sound is pronounced as a glottal stop (or ‘glottal t’) /ʔ/ when it is:

Rule 1: Between a vowel or /ɹ/ sound and followed by a syllabic N.

• Written – /ˈɹɪʔn/
• Beaten – /ˈbiːʔn/
• Importing – /ɪmˈpoːʔn/*
• Curtain – /ˈkɜːʔn/

Rule 2: Between a vowel sound and all other consonants except /t/, /n/, /h/ and /ŋ/

• Gutsy – /ˈgɐʔˌsi/
• Outthink – /ˈæʊʔˈθɪŋk/
• Shotput – /ˈʃɔʔˈpʊt/
• Ratbag – /ˈɹæʔˌbæg/
• Sitcom – /ˈsɪʔˌkɔm/
• Outgoing – /æʊʔˈgəʉən/

Rule 3: Between a dark L and any other consonant***

• Salts – /sɔɫʔs/
• Adultlike – /ˈædɐɫʔˌlɑek/
• Guiltless – /ˈgɪɫʔˌləs/

Rule 4: Between an /n/ sound and a syllabic N, when the /t/ sound is not at the start of a stressed syllable e.g.

• Contain – /kənˈtæɪn/
• Spontaneous – /spɔnˈtæɪniəs/
• Entangle – /ɪnˈtæŋgəl/

For example:

• Mountain – /ˈmæʊnʔṇ/
• Maintenance – /ˈmæɪnʔṇənʦ/
• Sentence – /ˈsenʔṇʦ/

Drilling exercises!

The topics below include drilling exercises for each of the pronunciation points you just learnt.

If you want to “drill down” and practice any or all of these pronunciation points, you can do so with these video exercises in order to solidify your pronunciation of these sounds.

If you can already pronounce these sounds with confidence, skip ahead to the next lesson.

But if you still have a little trouble either remembering the rules or making the sounds themselves, complete these exercises on a regular basis until you’ve nailed the pronunciation.

Tip: shorter and more frequent drilling sessions (e.g. 5 minutes per day) are more effective than longer infrequent sessions (e.g. 1 hour per week).