411 REFERENCE · Wiktionary
Knacklaut
Reference material by Wiktionary contributors. This retains its source identity and is not 411 news reporting.
German
de:
Etymology
de :af knacken Laut
de knacken Laut
Pronunciation
de /ˈknakˌlaʊ̯t/
de De-Knacklaut.ogg <<Germany>> (<<Berlin>>)
Noun
m,s:es
de phonetics glottal stop
de Glottisschlag Glottalplosiv Kehlkopfverschluss Kehlkopfverschlusslaut
de especially a glottal stop found in null onsets (vowel-initial stems) in German and other languages
Usage notes
It is often claimed that Standard German automatically inserts a glottal stop in null onsets, but this is a myth. Any initial glottal stop may be elided in everyday speech. While such pronunciations may be considered substandard, they by themselves belie the claim of an automatic glottal stop. More importantly, however, glottal stops in unstressed onsets are entirely optional and more often than not elided even in formal, careful standard speech.
Declension
m,s:es
Further reading
de Linguistics