Liquids

/j, w, r, l/

In Broad and some General WSAfE varieties, /j/ strengthens to /ɤ/ before a high front vowel: yield [ɤɪ:Ɨd]./r/ is usually postalveolar or retroflex [ɹ] in Cultivated and General WSAfE, while Broad varieties have [ɾ] or sometimes even trilled [r]. The latter is more associated with the L2 Afrikaans English variety, though it is sometimes stigmatized as a marker of Broad (Lass 2002: 121). WSAfE is non-rhotic, losing postvocalic /r/, except (in some speakers) as a liaison between two words, when the /r/ is underlying in the first (for a while, here and there etc.) However, intrusive /r/ is not represented in other contexts: (law and order) [lo:no:də]. The intervocalic hiatus that is created by the absence of linking /r/ can be broken by vowel deletion, as in the example just given; by a corresponding glide [lo:^Wəno:də], or by the insertion of a glottal stop: [lo:?əno:də]. The latter is typical of Broad WSAfE. There is some evidence of postvocalic /r/ in some Broad Cape varieties, typically in –er suffixes (e.g. writer). This could be under the influence of Afrikaans (and it is a feature of Afrikaans English); or perhaps a remnant of (non-RP) British English from the Settlers. Postvocalic /r/ appears to be entering younger people’s speech under the influence of American dialects. This is a development to be monitored; as yet it is not vernacular.

/l/ is clear [l] syllable initially, and dark (velarized) [Ɨ] syllable finally. When /l/ occurs at the end of a word, but before another word beginning with a vowel, it tends to be realized as clear in Cultivated WSAfE (Lass 2002: 121).

Some (particularly older) Cultivated speakers retain the [w] ~  distinction (as in witch ~ which, but this distinction is absent from General and Broad, which have only [w].