How does the Hupa contrast between teew and t’eew show the importance of glottalized consonants?

In the Hupa language, the contrast between teew (“underwater”) and t’eew (“raw”) demonstrates the functional importance of glottalized consonants in distinguishing word meanings.

Unlike standard English speech sounds, which rely on air pushed from the lungs, glottalized consonants are produced by closing the glottis and raising it. This traps air above the vocal cords, which is then ejected when the oral closure for the consonant is released. In linguistic notation, this glottalized articulation is typically represented by an apostrophe, as seen in t’eew.1

Because these sounds utilize a distinct phonetic mechanism—the ejection of trapped air rather than pulmonary airflow—they allow languages like Hupa to create minimal pairs that differentiate vocabulary. This highlights how Indigenous North American languages often employ phonetic traits beyond the standard voiced and voiceless contrasts found in many European languages to expand their phonemic inventories.1