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List of languages by number of phonemes

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This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

This partial list of languages is sorted by a partial count of phonemes (generally ignoring tone, stress and diphthongs). Estimates of phoneme-inventory size can differ radically between sources, occasionally by a factor of several hundred percent. For instance, Received Pronunciation of English has been claimed to have anywhere between 11 and 27 vowels, whereas West ǃXoon has been analyzed as having anywhere from 87 to 164 consonants.

Languages at the low end of the spectrum (Piraha, Rotokas) and especially the high end (Ubykh, Gǀui, ǂʼAmkoe for consonants, Wobe etc. for tones) are omitted.[clarification needed]

List

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This list features standard dialects of languages. The languages are classified under primary language families, which may be hypothesized, marked in italics, but do not include ones discredited by mainstream scholars (e.g. Niger–Congo but not Altaic).[1] Dark-shaded cells indicate extinct languages. The parenthesized righthand side of expressions indicates marginal phonemes.

List of languages
Language Language family Phonemes Notes Ref
Total Consonants Vowels, tones and stress
Arabic (Standard) Afroasiatic 34 28 6 Modern spoken dialects might have a different number of phonemes; for exmple the long vowels /eː/ and /oː/ are phonemic in most Mashriqi dialects.
Amharic Afroasiatic 37 30 7 [2]
'Āre'āre Austronesian 15 10 5 [3]
Bintulu Austronesian 25 21 4 [4]
Bukawa Austronesian 37 30 7 [5]
Buli Austronesian 23 + (1)[clarification needed] 18 + (1) 5 [6]
Cantonese Sino-Tibetan 36 + (1) 19 + (1) 11 + 6 [7]
Cèmuhî Austronesian 26 19 7 [8]
Cheke Holo Austronesian 37 32 5 [3]
Classical Tibetan Sino-Tibetan 35 30 5 [9]
Danish Indo-European 44 18 26 [10]
Dawan Austronesian 18 + (1) 11 + (1) 7 [11]
Enggano Austronesian 36 + (6) 10 + (6) 26 [12]
English Indo-European 44
40 		24 20
16 		Counting diphthongs as vowels; General American has 16 vowels while Received Pronunciation has 20 vowels, See English phonology [13]
Finnish Uralic 21 + (4) 13 + (4) 8 [14]
French Indo-European 34 + (1) 20 + (1) 14 Vowels /ɑ/ and /œ̃/ have been merged into /a/ and /ɛ̃/, respectively, in Parisian French. /ŋ/ is used for English loanwords. [15]
Garo Sino-Tibetan 23 + (1) 18 + (1) 5 [16]
Gilbertese Austronesian 15 10 5 [17]
Greek Indo-European 23 18 5 [18]
Hamer Afroasiatic 37 + (1) 26 + (1) 11 [19]
Hawaiian Austronesian 13 8 5 Long vowels are considered to be sequences of vowels and so are not counted as phonemes. [20]
Hindi Indo-European 44 + (5) 33 + (5) 11 [21]
Hungarian Uralic language 39 25 14 The vowel phonemes can be grouped as pairs of short and long vowels such as o and ó. Most of the pairs have an almost similar pronunciation and vary significantly only in their duration. However, pairs a/á and e/é differ both in closedness and length.
Italian Indo-European 30 + (1) 23 + (1) 7 [22]
Japanese Japonic 20 + (9) 15 + (9) 5 The nine marginal consonants are considered allophones and occur as contrastive only in loanwords and some Sino-Japanese vocabulary. [23]
Karbi Sino-Tibetan 26 + (2) 18 8 + (2) [24]
Kelabit Austronesian 25 + (1) 19 + (1) 6 [25]
Kilivila Austronesian 24 19 5 [26]
Korean Koreanic 28 21 7 Some analysts recognize the existence of another consonant, the /ɰ/ used only in the diphthong /ɰi/, and describe Korean's sound inventory as having as many as ten vowels. Vowels /ø/ and /y/ continue to be used only by older speakers, and have been replaced with /we/ and /wi/, respectively. Most younger speakers have merged /ɛ/ into /e/. [27]
Kosraean Austronesian 47 35 12 [17]
Lahu Sino-Tibetan 33 24 9 [28]
Latin Indo-European 25 + (6) 15 + (6) 10 The phonemes /pʰ tʰ kʰ z/ ⟨ph th ch z⟩ were only pronounced in Greek words by educated speakers, and the phonemic status of /ɡʷ/ and /kʷ/ is debated. [29]
Lauje Austronesian 18 13 5 [30]
Lepcha Sino-Tibetan 40 32 8 [31]
Lisu Sino-Tibetan 41 + (3) 31 + (3) 10 [32]
Lonwolwol Austronesian 38 25 13 [33]
Malagasy Austronesian 23 19 4 [34]
Malay Austronesian 24 + (5) 18 + (5) 6 [35]
Maltese Afroasiatic 35 24 11 [36]
Meitei Sino-Tibetan 31 25 6 [37]
Middle English Indo-European 42 23 19 Late Middle English [38]
Modern Hebrew Afroasiatic 28 + (2) 25 + (2) 5 [39]
Mongsen Ao Sino-Tibetan 25 20 5 [40]
Muna Austronesian 30 25 5 [30]
Narom Austronesian 30 24 6 [41]
Nemi Austronesian 48 43 5 [8]
Norman Indo-European 48 23 25 [42]
Nuaulu Austronesian 16 11 5 [6]
Nuer Nilo-Saharan 43 + (5) 20 + (5) 23 [43]
Old English Indo-European 37 19 18 This inventory of Late Old English includes two contrastive long diphthongs, which probably existed. Some scholars suggest the existence of /ʃ/ and two affricates, but this viewpoint is controversial, and the phonemes are not counted here. [44]
Polish Indo-European 37 29 8 [22]
Portuguese Indo-European 27 + (10) 19 + (4) 8 + (6) Some may argue that /kʷ/ and /gʷ/ being its own phoneme, And vowel phonemes may be counted using nasal vowels as well.
Punjabi Indo-European 65
52 		49
41 		16
9 + (2) 		There are two claims regarding number of phonemes: 52 and 65. On the basis of Punjabi's status as a syllable-timed language, there is not a single answer of this question. [45][46][47][48]
Sa'ban Austronesian 32 22 10 [25]
Saaroa Austronesian 17 13 4 [49]
Sinhala Indo-European 40 + (1) 26 + (1) 14 [50]
Spanish Indo-European 24 19 5 [51]
Thao Austronesian 23 + (1) 20 3 + (1) [52]
Tswana Niger–Congo 35 + (2) 28 + (2) 7 [53]
Turkish Turkic 31 + (1) 23 + (1) 8 Some consider ⟨ğ⟩ to be a separate phoneme.
Urdu Indo-European 61 48 11 + (2) Besides its Indo-Aryan base, Urdu includes a range of phonemes which are derived from other languages such as Arabic, Persian, English, and more. [citation needed]
Vaeakau-Taumako Austronesian 21 + (3) 16 + (3) 5 [54]
Vietnamese Austroasiatic 34 + (1) 20 + (1) 14 While some dialects distinguish ⟨tr⟩ and ⟨ch⟩, the distinction is missing in the Hanoi dialect, described here. [55]
Waima'a Austronesian 33 + (3) 28 + (3) 5 [11]
Wambule Sino-Tibetan 44 33 11 [56]
Wayan Austronesian 24 19 5 [57]
Wolio Austronesian 36 31 5 [30]

See also

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Footnotes

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  1. ^ Dixon, R. M. W. (December 11, 1997). The Rise and Fall of Languages. Cambridge University Press. p. 32–35, 38. ISBN 0521626544. Retrieved May 19, 2021.
  2. ^ Mulugeta, Teferi; Yimam, Baye; Mengistu, Girma (28 February 2024). "The Phonology of Amharic Ideophones". Journal of Ethiopian Studies.
  3. ^ a b Blust 2013, p. 203.
  4. ^ Blust 2013, pp. 182, 183–184.
  5. ^ Blust 2013, p. 199.
  6. ^ a b Blust 2013, p. 197.
  7. ^ Thurgood & LaPolla 2017, pp. 171–172.
  8. ^ a b Blust 2013, p. 207.
  9. ^ Thurgood & LaPolla 2017, pp. 370–371.
  10. ^ Basbøll, Hans (2005), The Phonology of Danish, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-151968-5
  11. ^ a b Blust 2013, p. 195.
  12. ^ Blust 2013, p. 190.
  13. ^ https://www.readingrockets.org/sites/default/files/the-44-phonemes-of-english.pdf
  14. ^ Suomi, Kari; Toivanen, Juhani; Ylitalo, Riikka (2008), Finnish sound structure – Phonetics, phonology, phonotactics and prosody (PDF), Studia Humaniora Ouluensia 9, Oulu University Press, ISBN 978-951-42-8984-2
  15. ^ Léwy, Nicolas (June 26, 2015). Computational psycholinguistics and spoken word recognition in the bilingual and the monolingual (Thesis). University of Neuchâtel. pp. 23–24. S2CID 147462844.
  16. ^ Thurgood & LaPolla 2017, pp. 244–246.
  17. ^ a b Blust 2013, p. 209.
  18. ^ Arvaniti, Amalia (2007). "Greek Phonetics: The State of the Art" (PDF). Journal of Greek Linguistics. 8: 97–208. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.692.1365. doi:10.1075/jgl.8.08arv. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-12-11.
  19. ^ Clem, Jenks & Sande 2019, pp. 289–290.
  20. ^ Blust 2013, pp. 169–170, 212.
  21. ^ Shapiro, Michael (2003). A Primer of Modern Standard Hindi. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited. ISBN 81-208-0508-9.
  22. ^ a b Coretta, Stefano (2020). Vowel duration and consonant voicing: A production study (Thesis). University of Manchester. pp. 41–44, 46. doi:10.17605/OSF.IO/W92ME.
  23. ^ Mattingley, Wakayo; Hall, Kathleen Currie; Hume, Elizabeth (2019). "Epenthetic vowel production of unfamiliar medial consonant clusters by Japanese speakers". Laboratory Phonology. 10 (1). Association for Laboratory Phonology: 21. doi:10.5334/labphon.158. S2CID 214166519.
  24. ^ Thurgood & LaPolla 2017, pp. 303–305.
  25. ^ a b Blust 2013, pp. 182–183.
  26. ^ Blust 2013, p. 200.
  27. ^ Cho, Sungdai; Whitman, John (2019). "Chapter 4: Phonology and Phonetics". Korean: A Linguistic Introduction. Cambridge University Press. pp. 65, 71, 73, 93. doi:10.1017/9781139048842.005. ISBN 9781139048842. S2CID 212900667.
  28. ^ Thurgood & LaPolla 2017, pp. 919.
  29. ^ Allen 1978, pp. 12–13
  30. ^ a b c Blust 2013, p. 193.
  31. ^ Thurgood & LaPolla 2017, p. 960–962.
  32. ^ Thurgood & LaPolla 2017, pp. 903–904.
  33. ^ Blust 2013, p. 205.
  34. ^ Blust 2013, pp. 68, 187.
  35. ^ Blust 2013, pp. 188, 189.
  36. ^ Fabri, Ray (1922). "Revue belge de Philologie et d'Histoire". Revue belge de Philologie et d'Histoire.
  37. ^ Thurgood & LaPolla 2017, pp. 338–340.
  38. ^ Bergs & Brinton 2012, pp. 409, 412.
  39. ^ Reilly, Sullivan. "History, Phonology, Orthography, Volume One: Hebrew". Park City Prospector. Retrieved 2024-09-23.
  40. ^ Thurgood & LaPolla 2017, pp. 280–282.
  41. ^ Blust 2013, pp. 182, 184.
  42. ^ Jones, Mari C. (January 1, 2015). "3 The Linguistic Context". Variation and Change in Mainland and Insular Norman. Vol. 7. Brill Publishers. pp. 34, 37. doi:10.1163/9789004257139_004. ISBN 9789004257139.
  43. ^ Clem, Jenks & Sande 2019, pp. 501, 503, 507.
  44. ^ Bergs & Brinton 2012, pp. 257, 258–260, 261.
  45. ^ Malik 2006.
  46. ^ Gill & Gleason 1969.
  47. ^ Meenu 2007.
  48. ^ Rupinderdeep 2010.
  49. ^ Blust 2013, p. 171–172.
  50. ^ "Research Report on Phonetics and Phonology of Sinhala".
  51. ^ Hualde 2014, p. 39.
  52. ^ Blust 2013, p. 172.
  53. ^ Clem, Jenks & Sande 2019, pp. 45–46.
  54. ^ Blust 2013, p. 204.
  55. ^ Kirby, James P. (November 11, 2011). "Vietnamese (Hanoi Vietnamese)". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 41 (3). Cambridge University Press: 382, 384. doi:10.1017/S0025100311000181. hdl:20.500.11820/6cd61c67-9d35-4214-bb80-734a9a21fea4. S2CID 144227569.
  56. ^ Thurgood & LaPolla 2017, pp. 736–739.
  57. ^ Blust 2013, pp. 211–212.

References

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