Pronunciation

In the following tables, the second column uses the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA); click on the IPA letters for more information.

Vowels
Sometimes, you may hear e pronounced æ as in cat. This can happen before ng or k, e.g. bebmeng [bɛbmæŋ] (arrived), ngarrbek [ŋɑrbæk] (echidna).

Consonants
Notes:
 * consonants are not aspirated like they are sometimes in English (no puff of air after k)
 * some words have doubled consonants like ngabba (father); take care to lengthen these, e.g. ngap.pa
 * rd is usually written d when we can predict an rd is required, e.g. rdird~dird (moon), kuwardrde~kuwardde (stone country)
 * d is pronounced rr when it appears between two vowels and when the following syllable is not stressed, e.g. Yirrurndi (you went back) vs. birridurndi (they went back)

Syllables
When pronouncing words, it is helpful to break them down into syllables. This is a three step process:


 * 1) underline each vowel
 * 2) for each vowel, point (with a pen tip) just before the vowel, count one consonant to the left and move the pointer
 * 3) the syllable boundary is here unless putting it here would break up a digraph (dj, rd, rl, ng, nj, rn, rr), in which case, go one more consonant to the left

Examples:
 * k u n.d u lk (name)
 * k u n.ng e y (name)
 * b e .rl u h (aunty)
 * ng u d.d a (you)
 * k u n.d e .ng e (foot)
 * m o .dj a rrk.k i (freshwater crocodile)
 * k u n.b a .rl a .nj a (Kunbarlanja = Gunbalanya)
 * m a .m a .rd a .w e .rr e (Mamardawerre)

Some syllables look familiar to English speakers, but you need to be careful not to pronounce them as in English:
 * yaw (English: movement of a boat) but in Kunwok it rhymes with the vowel in "ouch!", e.g. wurdyaw (child)
 * bang (English: loud noise) but in Kunwok it sounds like how we pronounce "bung" (broken), e.g. bangkerreng (knock 'em down storm season)
 * kang (English, start of kangaroo) but in Kunwok it might not even be a single syllable e.g. ka.ngi.men (it went inside)

Finally, pronounce each syllable in succession.