Distribution of the Danish Glottal Stop

The glottal stop of Danish is one of the characteristic features of Danish pronunciation. Though it is often called a glottal stop, the airflow is never completely stopped. It is restrained by a constriction of the vocal chords.

The Danish glottal stop is very common in monosyllabic words. It appears in the words gul (yellow), hund (dog) and hus (house). It only appears in stressed syllables and never appears after a short vowel, only after a long one. The word stat (state) has the glottal stop, but hat (hat) does not.

The Danish glottal stop is not limited to monosyllabic words. For example, the word mand (man) maintains the glottal stop in manden (the man). This is also the case with hus (house) and huset (the house). However, the plural huse (houses) has no glottal stop.

The glottal stop may be realized after the vowel or after the consonant. When it is realized after the consonant, the consonant is always voiced. In the word gul (yellow), the glottal stop occurs after the vowel. However, in the word mand (man), the glottal stop occurs after the nasal.

Unlike the glottal stop of English, the Danish glottal stop does not completely stop the airflow in the glottis. It merely restrains it. The Danish glottal stop can appear after long vowels or after voiced consonants. It is most common in monosyllabic words.