Glottal stops

[Yulephemia]

As a graduate in Linguistics, I'm not usually a snob about glottal stops, treating them as just a feature of spoken English.

However on Radio Scotland this morning I heard some comedian woman expressing her enthusiasm for "Twi?er" (the International Phonetic Alphabet symbol for the glottal stop is like a question mark without the dot; I don't know how to reproduce it here), and it was driving me demented.

I could feel my tongue tapping off my alveolar ridge in an attempt to make the stupid cow say /t/ properly, by some spooky telekinesis from my bus on the M8 to the BBC studios a few miles away!

Twitttter! Twitttter! Twitttter!

But why? Why should it annoy you at all? The glottal stop isn't easier to say than the 't'. So it isn't laziness. It's just a difference. Does it annoy you if a Spaniard pronounces 'c' with her tongue out like a 'th'?

Was the woman a north eastern English person? The NE glottal stop is lovely I think.

I am a total hypocrite as I correct the dc on their pronunciation and then sprinkle them through my speech like seasoning.
My pet hate is Dora the Explorer though - she throws them in where you least expect them!

I dont' mind it as a regional quirk, but I do dislike it as an affectation innit?

wo'eva.

Eleison as I say it doesn't normally bother me, but there was something about this woman that got to me!

I think it was because she was on national radio, when I would expect a certain formality to someone's language. I don't view it that way in casual conversation, but I think it was her disregard for the formal setting that bugged me.

I learnt about glottal stops (how self referential they are as you can pronounce G S with one!!) when I was about 12 when my mum (Queen of Pedants, she) pointed out that we all did it. (We being me and my friends).
This was in central Scotland.

The glottal stops I hate are the faux Tony Blair ones.

Yulephemia, I went on to do Linguistics for a year at university (still in Scotland). I don't think that Estuary English had been named then so all the examples focussed on us.

I think you're right, Poppy - it was something parents and teachers would go on at us about if we said "water" or "butter" with a glottal stop. We Scots were well-known for it.

I find myself cringing when DD says "wa?ur" for "water", but I try not to correct her as she does it rarely!

As for it not being lazy, I'm not sure I agree. A lot of Scots (e.g. Alex Ferguson) barely move their mouths when they talk, and I think it takes more effort to move your tongue up to your alveolar ridge than to just produce a glottal stop.

Butter and jotter!

You can listen to the woman (I think her name was Jenny Godley) on BBC iPlayer here and tell me whether or not she is annoying!

The section on Twitter starts at about 1:49:35.

Too right, poppyknot. TB's efforts to dumb down his pronunciation drove me bonkers. But Ed Miliband seems to be doing exactly the same thing! Arrrrrggghh!!!!

I picked up the Ed thing too. Grrrr and arrrrrgh!

I learned "La?in" at school. Even the Head called it that.

I'm Scottish.

Imo, she would have sounded like the Scottish version of TB doing his "dumbing down" if she'd altered her speech.

DS1 got told off in front of the class by his Headmistress for putting a glotal stop in a word the other day.

I am just remembering that Gordon Brown always said 'consti-uency' but other glottals were missing as it were.

Election nights were always fun.

DS1 said he felt it was a matter of opinion how words should be pronounced.

Yulephemia.

'Trending' is hurting me. Dis I hear that?

Did!

I hate glottal stops, I'm a bit Lynne Truss about grammar and accent (come from a working class background where people spoke correctly, so no class axe to grind).

But Janey Godley is a Glaswegian comedian who has written her autobiography. Her mother was murdered, she was sexually abused, she grew up with gangsters in a very rough environment. According to her Wikipedia entry she does a lot of work with heroin addicts, prisoners and other disadvantaged groups. I'm not too comfortable about criticising somebody from that background, who has risen to being included in a Radio 4 programme, and having a book published, on the grounds of accent.

I still don't like glottal stops though

For some reason I find the Scottish glottal stop (Sco?al stop?)less jarring than SE English. Something to do with longer vowel sounds beforehand maybe. NE is fine too - they swallow consonants that no-one else does. My favourite was Ni'ola in Byker Grove.

Dexterrocks I share your shame. I've got no idea why I do it as I certainly wasn't brought up with it.

I didn't know all that about her, Rebecca.
I'll forgive her as many glottal stops as she likes for having been through all that!

Have you heard that cover of Elton's Your Song?

So excuse me forge'in but these things I do...

Stop that right now young lady.

God the irritation factor of Ed Miliband's glottal stop is immense. Not because I dislike glottal stops but because it speaks of his having been baptised into the cult of Blair. It is shuddersome how the Blair faux-Estuary, faux-Durham glottal stop has been picked up by his former acolytes

I agree with LadyWellian. I've just listened to a short burst of the broadcast, and found the woman's accent quite intriguing. The glottal stop didn't jar at all.

I find Estuary English much more irritating - probably because I live "dahn souf" and the Estuary accent is more ubiquitous here.

BTW, I love this thread.

Maybe we just get irritated by aspects of our own accents that we were told off for when we were kids.