Consonants

Fricatives: TH, F/V, S/Z, H/CH, etc.

Voicing of word-initial /s/ and /f/, yielding /z-/ and /v-/, respectively, is rare in America; it is reported regularly for BahE only and as a highly recessive feature for NfldE. A stop realization of a word-initial voiced dental fricative, e.g. dis for ‘this’, is normal in Caribbean creoles, BahE, Gullah, AAVE, and CajE, and possible in all North American dialects except for CanE (it occurs in NfldE, however). With voiceless dental fricatives (e.g. ting for ‘thing’), the same process occurs in roughly the same distribution, though not quite as widely: in comparison with the previous feature, it is reported as conditional rather than universal in BahE and AAVE, and as not occurring at all in WMwE, InlNE, and SAmE. Realizations of word-initial dental fricatives as affricates are less common, and also more widely in use with voiced rather than voiceless variants. In the former case, i.e. [dð-] for [ð-], we find the feature reported as in regular use for AAVE only, and as used occasionally in WMwE, InlNE, PhilE, NYCE, SAmE, NfldE, CajE, and T&TCs; in the latter, i.e. [tθ-] for [θ-], in comparison with the previous list the feature is not mentioned for WMwE, InlNE, SAmE and AAVE. In intervocalic position, the voiced dental fricative may be labialized (so that, for instance, brother is pronounced with a central [-v-] consonant) in a few dialects, but this is a relatively exceptional process, reported as a possible variant for CajE, NfldE and BahE only. Similarly, an intervocalic labial consonant –v– may be rendered as a voiced bilabial stop –b– (so that river, never become riba, neba); this occurs regularly in TobC, SurC and BahE and with restrictions in JamC, T&TC, ChcE, and SAmE. Word-finally, the devoicing of obstruents (e.g. of a plural –s after a voiced sound) is a stereotypical feature of Chicago working-class speech.

The only American variety in which a voiceless velar fricative [X/x] occurs at least conditionally is ChcE. Word-initial h-deletion, e.g. ‘eart for ‘heart’, is common in much of the Caribbean (JamC, TobC, SurC, BahE; but not in the Leeward Islands) and in CajE, and possible in a few other related dialects (Gullah, AAVE, T&TC), among Franco-Americans in New England, and in NfldE. The distribution of the converse feature, word-initial h-insertion, e.g. haxe for ‘axe’, is similar: regular in JamC, Gullah, and BahE; possible in the T&TCs and NfldE. In word-initial /hj-/ clusters, i.e. in words like human or huge, the initial h- is omitted regularly in NfldE, among young urban speakers in SAmE, in NYCE, and CajE, and under specific conditions in PhilE, rural SAmE, ChcE, BahE, and JamC.