List of languages by number of phonemes
![]() | This list has no precise inclusion criteria as described in the Manual of Style for standalone lists. (May 2021) |
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.
Language | Language family | Phonemes | Notes | Ref | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total | Consonants | Vowels, tones and stress | ||||
Arabic | Afroasiatic | 34 + (2) | 28 | 6 + (2) | Number of phonemes in Modern Standard Arabic. The two long vowels /eː/ and /oː/ are phonemic in most Mashriqi dialects. | |
'Āre'āre | Austronesian | 15 | 10 | 5 | [2] | |
Bintulu | Austronesian | 25 | 21 | 4 | [3] | |
Bukawa | Austronesian | 37 | 30 | 7 | [4] | |
Buli | Austronesian | 23 + (1)[clarification needed] | 18 + (1) | 5 | [5] | |
Cantonese | Sino-Tibetan | 36 + (1) | 19 + (1) | 11 + 6 | [6] | |
Cèmuhî | Austronesian | 26 | 19 | 7 | [7] | |
Cheke Holo | Austronesian | 37 | 32 | 5 | [2] | |
Classical Tibetan | Sino-Tibetan | 35 | 30 | 5 | [8] | |
Danish | Indo-European | 44 | 18 | 26 | [9] | |
Dawan | Austronesian | 18 + (1) | 11 + (1) | 7 | [10] | |
Enggano | Austronesian | 36 + (6) | 10 + (6) | 26 | [11] | |
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 | [12] |
Finnish | Uralic | 25 | 17 | 8 | [13] | |
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. | [14] |
Garo | Sino-Tibetan | 23 + (1) | 18 + (1) | 5 | [15] | |
Gilbertese | Austronesian | 15 | 10 | 5 | [16] | |
Greek | Indo-European | 23 | 18 | 5 | [17] | |
Hamer | Afroasiatic | 44 + (1) | 26 + (1) | 18 | [18] | |
Hawaiian | Austronesian | 13 | 8 | 5 | Long vowels are considered to be sequences of vowels and so are not counted as phonemes. | [19] |
Hindi | Indo-European | 44 + (5) | 33 + (5) | 11 | [20] | |
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 | [21] | |
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. | [22] |
Karbi | Sino-Tibetan | 26 + (2) | 18 | 8 + (2) | [23] | |
Kelabit | Austronesian | 25 + (1) | 19 + (1) | 6 | [24] | |
Kilivila | Austronesian | 24 | 19 | 5 | [25] | |
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/. | [26] |
Kosraean | Austronesian | 47 | 35 | 12 | [16] | |
Lahu | Sino-Tibetan | 33 | 24 | 9 | [27] | |
Lauje | Austronesian | 18 | 13 | 5 | [28] | |
Lepcha | Sino-Tibetan | 40 | 32 | 8 | [29] | |
Lisu | Sino-Tibetan | 41 + (3) | 31 + (3) | 10 | [30] | |
Lonwolwol | Austronesian | 38 | 25 | 13 | [31] | |
Malagasy | Austronesian | 23 | 19 | 4 | [32] | |
Malay | Austronesian | 24 + (5) | 18 + (5) | 6 | [33] | |
Maltese | Afroasiatic | 35 | 24 | 11 | [34] | |
Meitei | Sino-Tibetan | 31 | 25 | 6 | [35] | |
Middle English | Indo-European | 42 | 23 | 19 | Late Middle English | [36] |
Mongsen Ao | Sino-Tibetan | 25 | 20 | 5 | [37] | |
Muna | Austronesian | 30 | 25 | 5 | [28] | |
Narom | Austronesian | 30 | 24 | 6 | [38] | |
Nemi | Austronesian | 48 | 43 | 5 | [7] | |
Norman | Indo-European | 48 | 23 | 25 | [39] | |
Nuaulu | Austronesian | 16 | 11 | 5 | [5] | |
Nuer | Nilo-Saharan | 43 + (5) | 20 + (5) | 23 | [40] | |
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. | [41] |
Polish | Indo-European | 37 | 29 | 8 | [21] | |
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. | |
Sa'ban | Austronesian | 32 | 22 | 10 | [24] | |
Saaroa | Austronesian | 17 | 13 | 4 | [42] | |
Sinhala | Indo-European | 40 + (1) | 26 + (1) | 14 | [43] | |
Spanish | Indo-European | 24 | 19 | 5 | [44] | |
Thao | Austronesian | 23 + (1) | 20 | 3 + (1) | [45] | |
Tswana | Niger–Congo | 35 + (2) | 28 + (2) | 7 | [46] | |
Turkish | Turkic | 31 + (1) | 23 + (1) | 8 | Some consider ⟨ğ⟩ to be a separate phoneme. | |
Vaeakau-Taumako | Austronesian | 21 + (3) | 16 + (3) | 5 | [47] | |
Vietnamese | Austroasiatic | 34 + (1) | 20 + (1) | 14 | While some dialects distinguish ⟨tr⟩ and ⟨ch⟩, the distinction is missing in the Hanoi dialect, described here. | [48] |
Waima'a | Austronesian | 33 + (3) | 28 + (3) | 5 | [10] | |
Wambule | Sino-Tibetan | 44 | 33 | 11 | [49] | |
Wayan | Austronesian | 24 | 19 | 5 | [50] | |
Wolio | Austronesian | 36 | 31 | 5 | [28] |
See also
[edit]Footnotes
[edit]- ^ 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.
- ^ a b Blust 2013, p. 203.
- ^ Blust 2013, pp. 182, 183–184.
- ^ Blust 2013, p. 199.
- ^ a b Blust 2013, p. 197.
- ^ Thurgood & LaPolla 2017, pp. 171–172.
- ^ a b Blust 2013, p. 207.
- ^ Thurgood & LaPolla 2017, pp. 370–371.
- ^ Basbøll, Hans (2005), The Phonology of Danish, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-151968-5
- ^ a b Blust 2013, p. 195.
- ^ Blust 2013, p. 190.
- ^ https://www.readingrockets.org/sites/default/files/the-44-phonemes-of-english.pdf
- ^ 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
- ^ 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.
- ^ Thurgood & LaPolla 2017, pp. 244–246.
- ^ a b Blust 2013, p. 209.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Clem, Jenks & Sande 2019, pp. 289–290.
- ^ Blust 2013, pp. 169–170, 212.
- ^ Shapiro, Michael (2003). A Primer of Modern Standard Hindi. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited. ISBN 81-208-0508-9.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Thurgood & LaPolla 2017, pp. 303–305.
- ^ a b Blust 2013, pp. 182–183.
- ^ Blust 2013, p. 200.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Thurgood & LaPolla 2017, pp. 919.
- ^ a b c Blust 2013, p. 193.
- ^ Thurgood & LaPolla 2017, p. 960–962.
- ^ Thurgood & LaPolla 2017, pp. 903–904.
- ^ Blust 2013, p. 205.
- ^ Blust 2013, pp. 68, 187.
- ^ Blust 2013, pp. 188, 189.
- ^ Fabri, Ray (1922). "Revue belge de Philologie et d'Histoire". Revue belge de Philologie et d'Histoire.
- ^ Thurgood & LaPolla 2017, pp. 338–340.
- ^ Bergs & Brinton 2012, pp. 409, 412.
- ^ Thurgood & LaPolla 2017, pp. 280–282.
- ^ Blust 2013, pp. 182, 184.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Clem, Jenks & Sande 2019, pp. 501, 503, 507.
- ^ Bergs & Brinton 2012, pp. 257, 258–260, 261.
- ^ Blust 2013, p. 171–172.
- ^ "Research Report on Phonetics and Phonology of Sinhala".
- ^ Hualde 2014, p. 39.
- ^ Blust 2013, p. 172.
- ^ Clem, Jenks & Sande 2019, pp. 45–46.
- ^ Blust 2013, p. 204.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Thurgood & LaPolla 2017, pp. 736–739.
- ^ Blust 2013, pp. 211–212.
References
[edit]- 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.