Characters for combined consonant and vowel syllables then follow. The following are phonological differences in AAVE vowel and consonant sounds. Dotted circles represent the positions of consonants or consonant clusters. Some morphophonological alternations occur depending on the final consonant or vowel. Paired consonants preceding another consonant often inherit softness from it. A vowel combines with a consonant in their diacritic form. As in the plural, morphophonological alternations occur depending on the final consonant or vowel. Syllables consist maximally of an initial consonant, a vowel, a final consonant, and a tone. These are some examples of combining a consonant with different vowels. In digital typesetting, these forms are triggered by inserting a between the consonant and vowel. They allow only syllables with maximally one initial and one final consonant. The vocative case causes lenition of the initial consonant of nouns. Suffixes display a slightly different type of consonant alternation. The nasals are normally assimilated to the place of articulation of a following consonant. Historically a fourth palatalized consonant existed, still written .