Consonants T

Posttonic intervocalic or pre-sonorant /t/ (as in Betty and water) is typically realized in NfldE as a flap, as in other North American varieties. In more careful styles, and particularly among older middle class speakers, it may be realized as a voiceless aspirated stop. On the Irish Avalon, the traditional variant (now associated more with older speakers, as well as female speech) is the alveolar slit fricative  ; occasionally the realization is [h], as in Saturday. The slit fricative occurs most frequently, however, in word-final pre-pausal position, e.g. hit, bet.

As elsewhere in Canada, a glottal stop variant occurs before syllabic /n/ (e.g. cotton); in NfldE, however, a glottal realization is found variably before syllabic /l/, as in bottle (and much more rarely, syllabic /r/, as in gutter). Glottalization of /t/ may also occur in syllable onset position between sonorants (e.g. partridge, mortal, country), and in coda position in other than a pre-vocoid environment, e.g. bootless, football.