consonant phoneme inventory of Old Rapa is relatively small. Consisting of only nine distinct consonants, Old Rapa is constructed of eight voiceless phonemes and one voiced phoneme. Of the nine phonemes, four are a result of a stop – , , , and . While is constantly bilabial and is dento-alveolar, the place where is articulated can range anywhere from pre-velar to uvular. When spoken, the place of articulation of depends on the succeeding vowel segment. Walworth uses the following examples to demonstrate these differing occurrences: Before a high-fronted : in the word 'know', is pre-velar Before a mid-fronted : in the word 'basket', is velar Before a low-back : in the word 'parent', is distinguishably more backed Before a mid-back : in the word 'sleep', is uvular The alveolar and post-alveolar stops, while distinguishable in the linguistic study of Old Rapa, are often misinterpreted as the phoneme /k/ to native speakers. This observation was noted multiple times in Walworth's conversations with native speakers; for example, the difference between and was not perceived by the native speaker. In the study of velar stops, there are instances in which lenition, the weakened articulation of a consonant, occurs. In the first case, the velar stop transitions more into a velar fricative when placed in the unstressed syllables. In Walworth's example in the word 'water', the phoneme is pronounced as ; however, in the word 'head', the is pronounced as . The second case is very similar to the first, but on a phrase level. In this sense, when placed in a word that is not stressed, lenition occurs. When referring to the Rapa usage of the phoneme , there is a distinct difference between the alveolar tap and a trill. When pronounced in words where it is located at the beginning of the stressed syllable, the alveolar tap becomes better defined as a trill. The usage of this phoneme and its variants is evident in Walworth's examples: Examples where a trill is perceived: 'name of island' > 'taro-bed' > 'plant-life' > Examples where a tap is retained: 'parent' > 'house' > 'ridge' > While currently indeterminable, it is plausible that in Old Rapa the phoneme existed closer resembling the lateral approximate . In an article published by John Stokes in 1955, what is now taken to be the phoneme was approximated to be a mix between "a clear l as in English