The Distribution of (Word Initial) Glottal Stop in Dutch

A glottal stop can be defined as the loud and sudden Start of a vowel. Immediately prior to the onset of a vowel, the vocal cords are adducted and kept in closed position for, say, 40 to 50 ms. During the closure phase, subglottal air pressure builds up rapidly. On releasing the closure, the vocal cords abruptly Start vibrating for the production of the vowel, which results in a rapid increase of the vowel's intensity, especially in the second and third formants (cf. Malecot, 1975). Figure l shows an oscillogram of the utterance ... dat een [?]aantal ('... that a number'; [?J is our phonetic syrabol for glottal stop), which was included in our speech database (see below).