• Source: 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.
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.




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). Dark-shaded cells indicate extinct languages. The parenthesized righthand side of expressions indicates marginal phonemes.




See also


UCLA Phonological Segment Inventory Database




Footnotes






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.

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• List of languages by number of phonemes
• List of sign languages
• Formosan languages
• Eskaleut languages
• List of constructed languages
• Languages of the Caucasus
• English language
• Romance languages
• English phonology
• Pirahã language