There are at least two major phonetic changes going on (loss of intervocalic -b-, as in kantába > kantá'a > kantá, and l > i in syllable codas in a preconsonantal position, as in fálta > fáita). The inventory of phonemes is not affected by these changes. However, a reduction of this inventory is brought about by the substitiution of the old velar nasal consonant (in words of African origin) by a prenasalized g in the speech of most speakers (ŋánha > ngánha).The coexistence of older and more recent forms produces dialectal variation. Implosive, preconsonantal r instead of l, as in argen instead of algen, mainly seems to characterize immigrants from the nearby island of Fogo.