List of languages by number of phonemes

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.

List

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,[ clarification needed ] tones and stress
Arabic (Standard)	Afroasiatic	34	28	6	Number of phonemes in Modern Standard Arabic, without counting the long vowels /eː/ and /oː/ which are phonemic in Mashriqi dialects or other dialectal phonemes.	[2]
Amharic	Afroasiatic	37	30	7		[3]
Archi	Northeast Caucasian	108/99 + (2)	82/80	26/19 + (2)	Count differs from source to source	[4] [5]
'Āre'āre	Austronesian	15	10	5		[6]
Bintulu	Austronesian	25	21	4		[7]
Bukawa	Austronesian	37	30	7		[8]
Buli	Austronesian	23 + (1)[ clarification needed ]	18 + (1)	5		[9]
Cantonese	Sino-Tibetan	36 + (1)	19 + (1)	11 + 6		[10]
Cèmuhî	Austronesian	26	19	7		[11]
Cheke Holo	Austronesian	37	32	5		[6]
Classical Tibetan	Sino-Tibetan	35	30	5		[12]
Danish	Indo-European	44	18	26		[13]
Dawan	Austronesian	18 + (1)	11 + (1)	7		[14]
Enggano	Austronesian	36 + (6)	10 + (6)	26		[15]
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	[16]
Finnish	Uralic	21 + (4)	13 + (4)	8		[17]
French	Indo-European	34 + (1)	20 + (1)	14	Vowels have been merged into /a/ and /ɛ̃/, respectively, in Parisian French. /ŋ/ is used for English loanwords.	[18]
Garo	Sino-Tibetan	23 + (1)	18 + (1)	5		[19]
Gilbertese	Austronesian	15	10	5		[20]
Greek	Indo-European	23	18	5		[21]
Hamer	Afroasiatic	39 + (6)	26 + (1)	13 + (5)	The language includes five diphthongs	[22]
Hausa	Afroasiatic	40	30	10		[23]
Hawaiian	Austronesian	13	8	5	Long vowels are considered to be sequences of vowels and so are not counted as phonemes.	[24]
Hindi	Indo-European	44 + (5)	33 + (5)	11		[25]
Hungarian	Uralic	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		[26]
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.	[27]
Karbi	Sino-Tibetan	26 + (2)	18	8 + (2)		[28]
Kelabit	Austronesian	25 + (1)	19 + (1)	6		[29]
Kilivila	Austronesian	24	19	5		[30]
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/.	[31]
Kosraean	Austronesian	47	35	12		[20]
Lahu	Sino-Tibetan	33	24	9		[32]
Lauje	Austronesian	18	13	5		[33]
Lepcha	Sino-Tibetan	40	32	8		[34]
Lisu	Sino-Tibetan	41 + (3)	31 + (3)	10		[35]
Lonwolwol	Austronesian	38	25	13		[36]
Malagasy	Austronesian	23	19	4		[37]
Malay	Austronesian	24 + (5)	18 + (5)	6		[38]
Maltese	Afroasiatic	35	24	11		[39]
Meitei	Sino-Tibetan	31	25	6		[40]
Middle English	Indo-European	42	23	19	Late Middle English	[41]
Modern Hebrew	Afroasiatic	30	25 + (2)	5		[42]
Mongsen Ao	Sino-Tibetan	25	20	5		[43]
Muna	Austronesian	30	25	5		[33]
Narom	Austronesian	30	24	6		[44]
Nemi	Austronesian	48	43	5		[11]
Norman	Indo-European	48	23	25		[45]
Nuaulu	Austronesian	16	11	5		[9]
Nuer	Nilo-Saharan	43 + (5)	20 + (5)	23		[46]
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.	[47]
Oromo	Afroasiatic	34	24	10		[48]
Polish	Indo-European	37	29	8		[26]
Portuguese	Indo-European	27 + (10)	19 + (4)	8 + (6)	Some may argue that /kʷ/ and /gʷ/ are phonemic, and vowel phonemes may be counted using nasal vowels as well.
Rotokas	North Bougainville	11/21	6	5/10
Sa'ban	Austronesian	32	22	10		[29]
Saaroa	Austronesian	17	13	4		[49]
Sinhala	Indo-European	40 + (1)	26 + (1)	14		[50]
Somali	Afroasiatic	31	21	10		[51]
Spanish	Indo-European	24	19	5		[52]
Thao	Austronesian	23 + (1)	20	3 + (1)		[53]
Tswana	Niger–Congo	35 + (2)	28 + (2)	7		[54]
Turkish	Turkic	31 + (1)	23 + (1)	8	Some consider ⟨ğ⟩ to be a separate phoneme.
Ubykh	Northwest Caucasian	86-88	84	2-4	4 consonants are only found in loanwords.
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		[55]
Vietnamese	Austroasiatic	34 + (1)	20 + (1)	14	While some dialects distinguish ⟨tr⟩ and ⟨ch⟩, the distinction is missing in the Hanoi dialect, described here.	[56]
Waima'a	Austronesian	33 + (3)	28 + (3)	5		[14]
Wambule	Sino-Tibetan	44	33	11		[57]
Wayan	Austronesian	24	19	5		[58]
Wolio	Austronesian	36	31	5		[33]

See also

• UCLA Phonological Segment Inventory Database

Footnotes

1. Dixon, R. M. W. (December 11, 1997). The Rise and Fall of Languages. Cambridge University Press. pp. 32–35, 38. ISBN   0521626544 . Retrieved May 19, 2021.
2. Bani Salameh, Mohammad (2021). "Phonemic consonant sounds in modern standard Arabic". Phonemic consonant sounds in modern standard Arabic.
3. Mulugeta, Teferi; Yimam, Baye; Mengistu, Girma (2024-02-28). "The Phonology of Amharic Ideophones". Journal of Ethiopian studies.
4. "Archi Dictionary" . Retrieved 2 June 2024.
5. Chumakina, Marina; Corbett, Greville G.; Brown, Dunstan (September 2008). Archi Language Tutorial (PDF).
6. Blust 2013, p. 203.
7. Blust 2013, pp. 182, 183–184.
8. Blust 2013, p. 199.
9. Blust 2013, p. 197.
10. Thurgood & LaPolla 2017, pp. 171–172.
11. Blust 2013, p. 207.
12. Thurgood & LaPolla 2017, pp. 370–371.
13. Basbøll, Hans (2005), The Phonology of Danish, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN   0-19-151968-5
14. Blust 2013, p. 195.
15. Blust 2013, p. 190.
16. https://www.readingrockets.org/sites/default/files/the-44-phonemes-of-english.pdf
17. 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
18. 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.
19. Thurgood & LaPolla 2017, pp. 244–246.
20. Blust 2013, p. 209.
21. 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.
22. Clem, Jenks & Sande 2019, pp. 289–290.
23. MUHAMMAD-GOMBE, UMAR (2021). "COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF STANDARD NIGERIAN ENGLISH SPOKEN BY L1 HAUSA AND KANURI SPEAKERS" (PDF). A Comparative Phonological Analysis of Varieties of English Spoken by Native Speakers of Nigerian Languages (Hausa, Igbo, Kanuri and Yoruba) for the Determination of Speakers’ Origins.{{cite journal}}: line feed character in |journal= at position 70 (help)
24. Blust 2013, pp. 169–170, 212.
25. Shapiro, Michael (2003). A Primer of Modern Standard Hindi. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited. ISBN   81-208-0508-9.
26. 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.
27. 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.
28. Thurgood & LaPolla 2017, pp. 303–305.
29. Blust 2013, pp. 182–183.
30. Blust 2013, p. 200.
31. 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.
32. Thurgood & LaPolla 2017, pp. 919.
33. Blust 2013, p. 193.
34. Thurgood & LaPolla 2017, p. 960–962.
35. Thurgood & LaPolla 2017, pp. 903–904.
36. Blust 2013, p. 205.
37. Blust 2013, pp. 68, 187.
38. Blust 2013, pp. 188, 189.
39. Fabri, Ray (1922). "Revue belge de Philologie et d'Histoire". Revue belge de Philologie et d'Histoire.
40. Thurgood & LaPolla 2017, pp. 338–340.
41. Bergs & Brinton 2012, pp. 409, 412.
42. Reilly, Sullivan. "History, Phonology, Orthography, Volume One: Hebrew". Park City Prospector. Retrieved 2024-09-23.
43. Thurgood & LaPolla 2017, pp. 280–282.
44. Blust 2013, pp. 182, 184.
45. 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.
46. Clem, Jenks & Sande 2019, pp. 501, 503, 507.
47. Bergs & Brinton 2012, pp. 257, 258–260, 261.
48. Negese, Tariku (June 2021). "Phoneme Distribution and the Sonority Nature of Consonant Clusters in Afaan Oromo". Phoneme Distribution and the Sonority Nature of Consonant Clusters in Afaan Oromo.
49. Blust 2013, p. 171–172.
50. "Research Report on Phonetics and Phonology of Sinhala".
51. PIA, John Joseph (1965). "SOMALI SOUNDS AND INFLECTIONS" (PDF). SOMALI SOUNDS AND INFLECTIONS: 15.
52. Hualde 2014, p. 39.
53. Blust 2013, p. 172.
54. Clem, Jenks & Sande 2019, pp. 45–46.
55. Blust 2013, p. 204.
56. 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.
57. Thurgood & LaPolla 2017, pp. 736–739.
58. Blust 2013, pp. 211–212.

References

• Bergs, Alexander; Brinton, Laurel J. (May 29, 2012). English Historical Linguistics. Vol. 1. De Gruyter. doi:10.1515/9783110251593. ISBN   9783110251593. S2CID   147811595.
• Blust, Robert (2013). The Austronesian languages (Revised ed.). Australian National University. hdl:1885/10191. ISBN   9781922185075.
• Clem, Emily; Jenks, Peter; Sande, Hannah (August 14, 2019). Theory and description in African Linguistics: Selected papers from the 47th Annual Conference on African Linguistics. Language Science Press. doi:10.5281/zenodo.3365789. ISBN   978-3-96110-205-1.
• Thurgood, Graham; LaPolla, Randy J. (2017). The Sino-Tibetan Languages (2nd ed.). Routledge. ISBN   978-1-315-39950-8.
• Hualde, José Ignacio (2014). Los sonidos del español. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-0-521-16823-6. Archived from the original on 10 December 2020. Retrieved 28 October 2020.