do not occur in intervocalic positions
* does not occur in contact with
* does not occur in contact with Words begin with any consonant except and preaspirated consonants (with the exception of the preaspirated in Atkan Aleut). Only in loanwords do , , and the borrowed consonants (p, b, f, d, g, ?/r) appear word-initially.

The word-initial CC can take many forms, with various restrictions on the distribution