Words Starting with an Apostrophe

[Tirealì'u]

... How does this work?

http://www.learnnavi.org/navi-vocabulary/#apostrophe

I'm curious as to how this changes the pronunciation of the word. Basically, how is 'aw different than aw?

[wisnij]

'aw is /ʔaw/ whereas aw is /aw/.  /ʔ/ is the glottal stop, like the catch in your throat when you say "uh-oh".  It can be tricky for native speakers of English to produce because we're not used to that sound starting a word.

[Tirealì'u]

Hrm, I get the stop in the cases of px, tx, and kx... But the idea of starting with a stop is odd to me. :-)

[Seze]

'aw is /ʔaw/ whereas aw is /aw/.  /ʔ/ is the glottal stop, like the catch in your throat when you say "uh-oh".  It can be tricky for native speakers of English to produce because we're not used to that sound starting a word.

So would a word that starts with a glottal stop sound more like a word that starts with a plosive sound?  I am confused on how you can make a stopping sound when you're not started in the first place...

[wisnij]

Hrm, I get the stop in the cases of px, tx, and kx... But the idea of starting with a stop is odd to me. :-)

Well, those are ejectives, which are different from the glottal stop (though related because they all involve the glottis).  But starting with a stop is very common -- /p/, /t/, and /k/ are all stops too, and we use those word-inital in English all the time.

[Seze]

Hrm, I get the stop in the cases of px, tx, and kx... But the idea of starting with a stop is odd to me. :-)

Well, those are ejectives, which are different from the glottal stop (though related because they all involve the glottis).  But starting with a stop is very common -- /p/, /t/, and /k/ are all stops too, and we use those word-inital in English all the time.

Looking back at the phonetics table, p t k and ' are all listed as plosives, which makes the glottal stop at the start make sense now...

[Tirealì'u]

Yeah, I think I get it now. :-)

[matthewmartin]

English does have initial glottal stops. Alice starts with a glottal stop. We just don't use pairs of words differentiated only by a glottal stop.

[Kaltxì Palulukan!]

English does have initial glottal stops. Alice starts with a glottal stop. We just don't use pairs of words differentiated only by a glottal stop.

If I am not mistaken, (modern) English has a FAMOUS glottal stop. Rent Clueless, Mean girls, Bring it on, or any other teen girl movie and wait for the "Valley Girl" inflection of:

'Ah! or 'Uh! (more breath than vocalization I believe--if I am not mistaken on this) to denote surprise and/or disbelief that someone would ask them to consider anything even remotely related to work or bad fahion. (usually used just preceding the words, "As if!")


Example scene:

Father: Britney, take out the trash.

Britney: (Glottal Stop, pause) That is soooooo Brad's job. Besides, I have to meet Mellissa and Tracy at the mall. Can I have the car keys?


Aneeeeways, hope it helps.

[Doolio]

the thing is, that when you say 'alice' in the beginning of your speech, it has a glottal stop in front of it simply because you are starting to talk, and thus, starting to breath out as you speak. if you were saying "i know alice", there wouldn't be a glottal stop in front of 'alice'. it is an accidental glottal stop, and it does not affect anything. on the other hand, na'vi words that begin with a glottal stop should be always spelled with it. also, you don't have to make glottal stop in front of 'alice' even if it is at the beginning of speaking, if you don't want to. you can simply glide in the word.

[Yomìheyu]

I think I got it. Test:

Oe-l aw ikran-ti tse'a.
We can glide from oel to aw ~ oelaw (only pronunciation!)

Oe-l 'aw ikran-ti tse'a.
We have to make a stop after Oe-l

I know the 'aw is superfluous and I hope that the phrase is correct ^^

[Tsyaltuan]

Just to make sure I'm understanding this correctly when there is a glottal stop is all you do pause in the sentence or do you say it differently? If all you do is pause how long do you pause?

Oh another question also. When a word starts with an apostrophe can you just attach it to another word or does it stay it's own word?

[Doolio]

-you don't just pause, you make a stop in the air flow, like when you're sayin "uh oh" in english, you are making a stop between "uh" and "oh"

-no, it stays it's own word, the apostrophe acts as an ordinary letter.

[Tsyaltuan]

Okay I understand now. Thank you.