Loss of Aspiration

The plosives [p, t, k] are aspirated only when they occur at the beginning of a stressed syllable as in p in, t ail, c ome, p lay. An aspirated consonant is one that is accompanied by a brief [h]-sound.

Aspiration is lost at the beginning of a stressed syllable when the voiceless plosives [p, t, k] are preceded by the sibilant [s]. Thus unaspirated variants of [p, t, k] are used after [s] before a stressed vowel, e.g. sk y, st ep, sp y.

Unaspirated variants are naturally used before unstressed vowels and in the word-final position, e.g. c ar ' toon, ri p e, t o ' wri t e.

The [h]-phoneme in Intervocalic Position

A partially voiced variant of the voiceless [h] is used between vowels, i.e. in intervocalic position within a word or at the word-junction, e.g. be h ind, I h ave, a h ouse.

The Clear and Dark [l]

The clear variant of the lateral sonorant [l] is used before vowels and the median sonorant [j] within a word and at the word-junction. In this position the front of the tongue is raised towards the hard palate which palatalizez the sound, e.g. va l ue, l esson, wil l y ou, l oose, al l a re here.

The dark variant of [l] is used before consonants and in the word-final position. In this position the back of the tongue is raised towards the soft palate, which gives a dark shade to the sound, e.g. te ll, se ll, chi ld ren, fai led, We lsh.