[k]→[ʔ]Certainty: 5/5Commonality: 4/5

Debuccalization Glottalization Germanic Mayan Austronesian

Voiceless velar plosive to Glottal stop

The shift from the voiceless velar stop [k] to a glottal stop [ʔ] is a form of debuccalization. In many English dialects, velar and dental stops in coda positions lose their oral articulation, leaving only the glottal closure.

Phonetic Effects

Debuccalization, Glottalization

Language Examples

Malay / Indonesian Austronesian

*basak (PMP 'wet')→basah [ʔ]— Proto-Malayo-Polynesian word-final *k → [ʔ] in Malay; e.g., Indonesian 'tidak' [tiˈdaʔ] (not), 'anak' [ˈanaʔ] (child).

English (Cockney/Glasgow) Germanic

back [k]→[baʔ]— Coda glottalization of the velar stop.

doctor→[ˈdɒʔtə]— Glottal replacement in medial clusters.

Yucatec Maya Mayan

nak [k] (to stop something)→nahkúuns [ʔ] (to support)— Word-final obstruents, including /k/, undergo debuccalization to /h/ or /ʔ/ at prosodic boundaries in Yucatec Maya. The stop loses its oral place of articulation, leaving only a laryngeal closure.

Proto-Mayan *q and *k (non-K'ichean branches)→[k] or [kʼ]— In branches outside K'ichean-Mamean and Qʼanjobʼalan, Proto-Mayan uvular *q merged with velar /k/, which then underwent coda weakening including glottalization in Yucatecan.

Related Transformations

Reverse Next stage: Elision

More Germanic Shifts

[a] → [ã] — Assimilatory Nasalization [a] → [∅] — Elision [a] → [ʔ] — Glottalization [a] → [ə] — Vowel Reduction [æ] → [ɛ] — Vowel Raising

Sources & References

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