Consonants

Stops: P/T/K, B/D/G

Word-initial voiceless stops are aspirated in American and Caribbean varieties, with few exceptions: a lack or weakening of this aspiration is the norm in CajE and Gullah, and possible in JamE/C. All North American dialects, including BahE but not the Caribbean varieties, regularly allow the lenisation (flapping, voicing) of intervocalic /t/ (so that writer sounds like rider); CajE is the only dialect in which this is found only under specific circumstances. The realization of /t/ as a glottal stop word-finally or intervocalically is regularly found only in AAVE and, in the Caribbean, in Baj; in SAmE, NEngE, Nfl dE and BahE this is a possible variant. The palatalization of word-initial velar stops (so that can’t and garden are pronounced with /kj/ and /gj/, respectively) marks Caribbean creoles (JamC, T&TC, TobC, SurC – where [tj/ʧ/dj/ʤ] are also found in such words). The same applies to the pronunciation of words with an initial b- with bw- (e.g. bwoy ‘boy’), documented for the same varieties and, marginally, also for NfldE. Saramaccan is noteworthy for the existence of implosive voiced stops, . In Saramaccan and Ndyuka word-internal /d/ may be replaced by a lateral /l/.