gw is pronounced almost like gu in agua

36 Questions 9. tewa ‗perhaps‘ 10. owanma ‗to shivershake‘ 4.2.4 Pronunciation of transitional w In many dialects of Kuna, there tends to be a transitional w sound when the vowels u or o are followed by the vowels a or e ua ‗fish‘ is pronounced uwa. ue ‗hot‘ is pronounced uwe. toa ‗Who?Whom?‘ is pronounced towa. koe ‗deer‘ is pronounced kowe. 4.2.5 Fluctuation and phonological changes of fricatives, affricates and the semi-vowel j The fricatives and affricates in Kuna are ch, zh, s, ss and the semi-vowel j. There is fluctuation between them according to the preference of the speaker, their position in the word or syllable, or the other consonant in the cluster. Following are some of the general rules governing the fluctuation of these consonants. 4.2.5.1 chs word initial There is fluctuation between the use of ch and s at the beginning of a word. Some general rules will help clarify their use. Rule 1 : Where there is fluctuation between chs word initially, the generally preferred pronunciation for a word or sense of a word has been chosen as the criteria for determining the correct spelling of the word. Rule 2 : Almost all words are written with ch word initially on the basis of Rule 1. Example chuli ‗no‘ Rule 3 : If the first vowel in a word is an a, the preceding fricative is often written s. Example s atechage ‗nothing‘ Rule 4: In some cases where a word beginning with chs has two distinct meanings, the distinction is made more clear by retaining an initial ch for one meaning and s for the other. Examples saglachagla ‗chiefhair‘ sagla ‗chief‘ is the preferred spelling although chagla ‗chief‘ is also correct. chagla ‗hair‘ is the preferred spelling although sagla ‗hair‘ is also correct. Rule 5 : Some words are always pronounced and written with an s word initially. Example sae ‗yesterday‘ Rule 6 : Some words are always written with an s word initially, according to their preferred pronunciation. Example sabured ‗skirt‘

4.2.5.2 chzh syllable final ch

and zh become ss and s, respectively, at the end of a syllable and are both written s in this position. nuzhu becomes nus ‗worm‘ in its short form. ochi ‗sweet‘ becomes ostigid ‗a sweetened thingsugar‘. Note : In the case of ostigid ‗a sweetened thingsugar‘, one knows that the s is actually a fortis ss because the following consonant t is fortis and therefore, the s is also fortis. 4.2.5.3 Addition of suffixes which begin with a fricativeaffricatesemi-vowel j Suffixes beginning with chzhj are added to words according to the following rules.