>> German certainly has [?], but does it actually have /?/? It
>> seems to me that [?] is completely predictable.
> I've seen a convincing argument for the existence of minimal pairs.
> The glottal stop is within words.
The glottal stop is used almost exclusively before stressed syllables. So
normally:
muss ich gehen (ich unstressed, so no glottal stop)
muss _ich_ gehen (ich stressed, so a glottal stop is likely)
This means we get minmal pairs where there is also a difference of stress:
die Übersetzung /di yb&'stEzuN/ = the translation (glottal stop not
normal)
die Übersetzung /di '?yb&sEtzuN/ = the ferrying across (separable verb)
There may also be minmal pairs with combinations such as -eri- where the
glottal stop would show a morpheme boundary:
erinnern /er'?inn&n/
but compouns of rinnen (etc) would not show this glottal stop. I can't
think of exact minimal pairs, but maybe someone else can.
Peter