Consonants

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

Word-initial voiceless stops are aspirated in the varieties of Ireland and England. There is some evidence that aspiration is weaker in Scotland. Strong aspiration approaching affrication is a feature in the whole of Wales, especially the north.

Glottalisation of intervocalic and word-final /t/ occurs everywhere in the British Isles, with considerable frequency: /p/ and /k/ are also glottalised, though not as regularly as is /t/.

/t/ and /d/ are generally dental in Shetland, and tend to have fronted or dental articulation in Scotland. This is also a feature of the English accents of mid and northern Wales.

Affrication of /t/ is reported as a special feature of Dublin speech in Ireland, and is, with affrication of /p/ and /k/, very prevalent in the Liverpool area of Northern England. Affrication of /k/ and /g/ before front vowels is also characteristic of accents of limited areas of Orkney and Shetland. Lenicisation of intervocalic /t/ is strongly evidenced in South-west England and is also found in Ireland and widely in the rest of England, while strong aspiration of /p, t, k/ is noted for the whole of Wales. A flap or tap, [ɾ] , is part of a complex of allophones of /t/ in Ireland and Northern and Midland England, and of British Creole, though the sociolinguistics of this feature varies markedly between regions, as do other likely precise realizations.

There is a tendency towards unvoicing of word-final /d/ in the English of Wales where Welsh is spoken.