The Arawack is described as "the softest of all the Indian tongues."[2]
It is rich in vowels, and free from gutturals. The enunciation is
distinct and melodious. As it has been reduced to writing by Germans,
the German value must be given to the letters employed, a fact which
must always be borne in mind in comparing it with the neighboring
tongues, nearly all of which are written with the Spanish orthography.
The Arawack alphabet has twenty letters: a, b, d, e, g, h, i, j, k, l,
m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, w.
Besides these, they have a semi-vowel written [lr] the sound of which in
words of the masculine gender approaches l, in those of the neuter
gender r. The o and u, and the t and d, are also frequently blended. The
w has not the German but the soft English sound, as in _we_. The German
dipthongs[TN-2] æ, [oe], eu, ei, ü, are employed. The accents are the
long ^, the acute `, and that indicating the emphasis ´. The latter is
usually placed near the commencement of the word, and must be carefully
observed.