Consonants Dropping of initial /w/

Initial /w/ is foreign to Welsh as an unmutated form (several consonants in Welsh are subject to mutation rules in word-initial position), and influence from this may lie behind the occasional dropping of initial /w/ in traditional Welsh English, particularly in words with a following back, close, rounded stressed vowel, such as woman, wool. Parry (1999: 40–41) records zero-/w/ initially in these words scattered through north, mid and south Wales, though forms with initial /w/ are dominant overall.