The glottal stop is an important feature of Danish pronunciation. It allows the distinction of words that would be pronounced identically such as hund (dog) and hun (she). The word hund (dog) is pronounced with the glottal stop, but the word hun (she) is not. However, though it is used in standard Danish, it is not used in all dialects.
In dialects of southern Denmark, the glottal stop is not phonemic. Word pairs such as hun (she) and hund (dog) are pronounced identically in these dialects. The southern dialects retain an earlier pronunciation.
The phonemic glottal stop is used by most Danish speakers. In southern dialects, however, it is not used. This is illustrated in the map, which shows the border of the Danish glottal stop. The dialects to the north of the line distinguish words with the glottal stop, but the dialects to the south of the line do not.
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