tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Jun 16 12:15:41 1995

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Re: Glottal (and other) stops



Jim:

Your description is cute, "hit in stomach".... nice.

I've had a lot of success by writing the letter on the board large 
enough so it's a 9 (which does look like a big apostrophe!)

I put some words on the board:

9e9 9orghen 9u9 9o9  ....  this helps get across the message that it's a 
letter equal to any other one....

Then (since using the IPA ? would get confusing) I express some commonly 
spoken English words...

9at 9of 9enter 9anything, which of course all have unwritten glottal 
stops...  

And then I bring in 9uh9unh!, and 9uh9ohhhh!

To teach the difference between {'a'} and {'a}, I use the Wheel of 
Fortune analogy:

A new car:  {'u}  {'a}  (Oooohhhhh,  ahhhhhhh}....

And then say Uh-oh again.... {'a''o'}.....

All this creates a big discussion about the 9 being an unwritten English 
sound--so much we're not even taught about it!  (Unless you go into 
linguistics, or get taught about Cockney slang....)

<[email protected]> #1 910 759 5532, fax -6142 ..Pardon me, but if I must
David E G Sturm, Laboratory Manager            operate in a vacuum, may
Wake Forest University Department of Physics   I at least have a little
7507 Reynolda Station, Winston-Salem NC 27109  ether to calm my nerves?



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