T-Glottalling

T-glottalling is a process by which the phoneme /t/ is realised as a glottal stop [ʔ] in coda position, and it is a widely explored variable in all accents of English, including SSBE. Its occurrence depends  mainly on educational level, speech style and, also, phonetic context. In SSBE, t-glottaling appears mainly:
– before another consonant, e.g. football [ˈfʊʔbɔːl], white ball  [ˈwaɪʔ ˈbɔːl]
– in absolute final position, e.g. Sit! [ˈsɪʔ]
And it is increasingly heard:
– prevocalically across word boundaries, e.g. what is this? [ˈwɒʔ ɪz ðɪs]
– before a syllabic /n/, e.g. Britain [ˈbrɪʔn̩]

Further information on t-glottalling here.
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These are some examples of t-glottaling in SSBE, estuary English and cockney (Adele).

Well… it’s really… I think, I think there’s a huge par[ʔ] of me tha[ʔ] still doesn’t qui[ʔ]e see tha[ɾ] i[ʔ] is… It’s just one of those things that are sor[ɾ] of on in i[ʔ].

Well, actually tha[ʔ] came a little bi[ʔ] la[t]er, bu[ʔ]yeah, I was… I was… plucked ou[ʔ]of my dance school, and… er… I me[ʔ]someone who became my agent, and she said tha[ʔ] I should star[ʔ] acting, I’d done a li[ʔ]le bi[ʔ] of improvisation, which I really enjoyed, and erm… yeah, my second audition was actually game of thrones, and then I learned everything on tha[ʔ] show…

  • I’m loving this bob
  • Oh thanks, thanks very much. Oh my god the other day I went for dinner with one of my best friends, ’cause I’m not gonna see him before Christmas, so we me[ʔ] out and (gave?) him his Christmas present, ge[ʔ] there at seven for[ʔ]y five,  and then I’m si[ʔ]ing there, it’s like, eigh[ʔ] o’clock, I’m thinking, where is he, he’s normally really punctual… I call him, where are you, oh, you said eigh[ʔ] for[ʔ]y five, so I’m si[ʔ]ing in this restaurant for an hour on my own, looking like such a loser…so I order a glass of wine, and then I have another glass of wine, and then I spo[ʔ] a family, I went over, a bi[ʔ] drunk, I was… did you call my name earlier… sorry, I have my securi[ʔ]y with me, and I was like sorry, he was being very protective or wha[ʔ]ever… did you hear i’ts your birthday? Le[ʔ] me ge[ʔ] your meal for you, so I paid for their meal, and then I had another glass of wine, and then my friend arrived and I had two more glasses of wine, bearing in mind I hadn’t had a drink in like eigh[ʔ] months, 

So I see up in our school there was a sign, they needed a live model for the ar[ʔ] class, you know, where you’re basically naked, and I though[ʔ]… tha[ʔ]’s a good idea… so that’s exactly wha[ʔ] I did!

  • But look, listen, I am… I loved i[ʔ], i[ʔ] was an amazing experience, seeing him, and kind of being in… we had to go to Vancouver, I had literally like eigh[ʔ] hours to shoo[ʔ] it…
  • How long does it take, does it take eight hours to shoot a video?
  • Well no[ʔ] really, when you know what you’re doing i[ʔ] takes eigh[ʔ] hours, but [dʒ]u know wha[ʔ], i[ʔ] was amazing, because we just really did a bish, bash, bosh, go[ʔ] there, go[ʔ] in, go[ʔ] out, no[ʔ] in tha[ʔ] physical way, and we just..

I’m just a big kid now, i[ʔ] isn’t just, i[ʔ] isnt’ just that[ʔ], i[ʔ]’s like… I went to buy my goddaughter a ninja tur[ʔ]le toy for her birthday, and I was in the ninja tur[ʔ]le section and there was this huge ninja tur[ʔ]le truck, and I was looking at this small toy that I go[ʔ] for her and the big truck, and I was like, I’ll be ge[ʔ]ing tha[ʔ] for me. 

Actually, I remember I once wen[ʔ] on a da[ʔ]e and brough[ʔ] a lego se[ʔ] and made the lego se[ʔ] and then left. 

I go[ʔ] cu[ʔ] up, I go[ʔ] cu[ʔ] up…