Variation

Wells (1973: 11) does point to the historical basis for the variation between /b/ and /v/. It does seem that /v/ is a relatively recent entrant into the phoneme inventory of JamC, imported with modern loan words from JamE. The result is that some older JamC forms with /b/ have a reflex in JamE with /v/. These forms allow for /v/ ~ /b/ variation in modern JamC. However, more recent loans with a JamE /v/ reflex only allow for /v/ in JamC. Forms with /b/ in JamE do not vary in JamC, always retaining /b/.