Fricatives

F and V are realized more as approximants , rather than as fricatives; i.e. contact between the lower lip and upper teeth is made without the audible friction that one finds in RP or SAfE. The v/w overlap that one finds in IndE is rare and recessive in InSAfE; only some older speakers say things like wamit ['wΛmɪ't] for vomit.

/θ/ and /ð/ are regularly realized as dental stops , thus theme = , weather =  and then = . An interesting set of substitution of dental  for the alveolar stop [t] concerns words dealing with the mouth cavity: tooth, teeth, tongue, tonsil all have an initial dental stop, making a set with throat. Likewise, though teach has initial [t], taught has initial dental , possibly a dissimilation from the final [t] or based on an analogy with thought.

/s/ and /z/ are regular alveolar fricatives. Likewise there is little significant difference between /ʃ/, /Ʒ/ , /tʃ/ and /ʤ/ in InSAfE and general SAfE. Combinations of /t/ or /d/ with /j/ may be realized as [tʃ] and /ʤ/, thus tune = [tʃu:n] and deuce = [ʤu:s] for some speakers.

/h/ has several realizations, depending on speakers' language and social class backgrounds. People of North Indian origin usually produce a voiced fricative  or a murmured (breathy-voiced) fricative . People of South Indian background, especially Tamil, tend to produce what is popularly seen as H-dropping. That is H is realized as either a glottal construction (with discernible rise in pitch of a following vowel), or as a weak murmur on a following vowel. Within the InSAfE community H-dropping is a stereotype associated mainly with Tamil speakers. Some speakers of this group may even produce hypercorrections like hant for ‘ant’ and hout-’ouse for ‘out-house’. Occasionally speakers substitute a ‘euphonic’ [j] and [w] in place of h (yill, yad, liveliwood, for ‘hill’, ‘had’, ‘livelihood’). More generally some ‘euphonic’ [j] and [w] occurs amongst older speakers of Dravidian background as in yevery for ‘every’, but this is recessive in InSAfE.

/l/ is reported to have 'light' (= non-velarized) allophones in place of dark (velarized) ones in words like ball. (Bughwan 1970). This feature has not been studied to ascertain if there have been more recent changes. As far as /r/ is concerned, InSAfE is non-rhotic (in strong contrast to IndE); the only exception being the pronunciation of the letter r itself as [ɑ:r], as in all SAfE varieties. /r/ varies between an approximant or obstruent [r], depending on linguistic context and speaker variables. In clusters it is usually a rolled r as in trap, drake, break. In initial position it is either an approximant or a roll. Linking and intrusive /r/ are uncommon, since [?] is used instead. Thus far out is likely to be pronounced as [fɑ:ʔaʊt] rather than [fɑ:r aʊt]. This is generally true of SAfE.