into in words such as beige. The phoneme is devoiced into an . This also includes intervocalic and the in examples such as dissolve, possess and their derivatives, brassiere, dessert, dissolution, Missouri(an), possession and scissors, which are usually pronounced as a in most other accents of English. However, Aussie is usually pronounced with as in the United States. Older speakers tend to add an i or e sound before the syllable-initial clusters sl-, sm-, sn-, sp- and st- due to Spanish influence, so the words star and lipstick sounds like (i/e)star and lip(i/e)stick respectively. Like most non-native speakers of English elsewhere, the "dark l" () is merged into the usual "light" equivalent. The compound is pronounced as a palatal lateral approximant in between vowels (e.g. gorilla), especially to those who were exposed to Spanish orthography. This is negligible among younger well-educated speakers. The letter "z" is usually pronounced (and sometimes spelled) as a "zey" like in Jamaican English. However, in standard Philippine English, it is pronounced as the American "zee". Vowels Vowels in Philippine English are pronounced according to the letter representing each, so that are generally pronounced as , respectively. The schwa —although a phonological feature across numerous Philippine languages such as Karay-a, Maranao, or the Abagatan (Southern) dialect of Ilocano—is absent as a separate phoneme. The following are the various approximations of the schwa: Words that end in -le that succeeds a consonant (such as Google) are generally pronounced with an , except for words that end -ple, -fle or -ble (apple, waffle and humble), which are pronounced with an . The in words such as knowledge or college, it is pronounced as a diphthong , making it rhyme with age. The rhotic vowels and may be pronounced as an (commander), (circle) or an (doctor), usually by non-native speakers outside urban areas or the elderly. The pronunciations are pronounced as central vowels and . In the standard dialect, the open front may be pronounced as an allophone of . The first in some words such as patronage, patriot(ic/ism), (ex/re)patriate(d/s) and (ex/re)patriation usually have the sound of either , like in British/non-Canadian Commonwealth or Irish English, or sometimes , rather than in the United States and Canada. Moreover, the in the unstressed -ative suffix is reduced to either the schwa or , becoming as in Britain and Ireland, for words stressed on the second syllable such as administrative, investigative,