text: what is the function of the glottis?   the space between the vocal cords is called the glottis. as the vocal cords vibrate, the resulting vibration produces a "buzzing" quality to the speech, called voice or voicing.  sounds production involving only the glottis is called glottal. english has a voiceless glottal fricative spelled "h". in many accents of english the glottal stop (made by pressing the folds together) is used as a variant allophone of the phoneme /t/ (and in some dialects, occasionally of /k/ and /p/); in some languages, this sound is a phoneme of its own.