In relation to the production of /ʊ/, it was generally noticed as a high-back lax vowel in words like "full," "put," "poor," "foot," "could," "would," and "should." This stands out given that previous studies have used the high-back tense vowel /u/ instead of lax /ʊ/ (Tayao, 2008; Jubilado, 2016).
Consonants The study of Tayao (2008) observed the presence of /p, b, t, d, k, g, m, n, ŋ, l, w, y/ and /r/ in the acrolectal, mesolectal, and basilectal varieties. However, the pronunciation of /r/ changed from a retroflex liquid in the acrolectal to a rolled or one tap in the mesolectal and basilectal varieties. Additionally, while /p, t, k/ are typically aspirated in syllable-initial stressed positions in General American English, this feature is rare among the acrolectal group and is not evident at all in the mesolectal and basilectal varieties.
In the fricative case, /h/ is the only fricative occurring in all three varieties, whereas the labiodental fricatives, /f/ (voiceless) and /v/ (voiced), are present in the acrolect and mesolect, but absent in the basilect level, with some exceptions, like in the Ibanag language group where /f/ and /v/ are present in the consonant inventory. Therefore, /f/ and /v/ are often rendered /p/ and /b/, respectively, at the basilectal level. As regards voiced fricatives, the consonantal /z/ emerged in words like zoo [zu], thousand [Ɵaʊzənd] and villagers [vɪlɪdʒɚz] although not a single pair of speakers exhibit this feature. It seems that the minimal attempts to produce such sound were mainly found in words where the voiced /z/ is explicitly represented as . With this, it is worthy to repeat the meaningful observation of Gonzalez and Alberca (1978) that Filipino speakers of English largely go by the spelling pronunciation.
The interdental fricatives, /θ/ and /ð/, are largely absent in the basilectal variety and are replaced by the alveolar stops /t/ and /d/ respectively. However, they are found in the consonant inventory of the mesolectal and acrolectal groups, the interdental fricatives are still in variable use with /t/ and /d/ in those two groups with a greater incidence of occurrence of /t/ and I/d/ among the mesolectal speakers.
The sibilants /s/ and /z/ are present in the acrolect but are typically merged as /s/ in both the mesolect and basilect with a higher incidence of this merger in the basilect compared to the mesolect. However, among the mesolectal speakers, sibilants in word-initial positions, such as zebra, zoo, and shoe are pronounced as such, while they are coalesced with /s/ in word-final positions, such as bush and buzz, where they are realized as /s/.
Regarding the affricates /ʧ/ and /ʤTop of FormBottom of Form/ they are both present in the acrolect and mesolect. In the basilectal group of speakers, / ʧ / is realized as /ts/, while /ʤ/ is rendered as /dy/ in word-initial position and as /ds/ in word-final position.
In terms of consonant clusters, three processes may be observed, including simplification, where the last consonant in the cluster is dropped, and this is particularly evident among Philippine English speakers, who commonly drop the last consonant in a cluster when it occurs in word-final position. An example of this simplification process is in the word "past," which is often realized as /pas/. Another process observed is the insertion of a vowel between the consonants, changing the syllable structure of syllabic consonants and resulting in a spelling pronunciation. Examples include "mountain," which is often realized as /maun-teyn/ instead of /maun-tn/, "garden," which is frequently pronounced as /gar-dɛn/ instead of /gar-dn/, and "little," which is sometimes pronounced as /li-tɛl/ instead of /li-tl/. This process of inserting a vowel between the consonants to create a spelling pronunciation is especially common among mesolectal and basilectal groups of speakers.
The third process observed involves putting a vowel before the initial syllable in the cluster, as demonstrated by the prothetic /s/ cluster in initial position. In addition, morphophonetic changes in regular verbs in the past tense were seen in all three groups, with the plural morpheme "s" being rendered as /is/ after all sounds except sibilants, where it was pronounced as / ɪs/. Unlike General American English, "s" is not pronounced as /z/ or / ɪz/ after voiced sounds and sibilants respectively in Philippine English.