List of languages by number of phonemes
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This partial list of languages is sorted by a partial count of phonemes (generally ignoring tone, stress, and diphthongs). Languages in this list cannot be directly compared: Counts of the phonemes in the inventory of a language 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[citation needed] 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] DarkLight-shaded cells indicate extinct languages. The parenthesized righthand side of expressions indicates marginal phonemes.
| Language | Language family | Numbers of 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] |
| ꞌAreꞌare | Austronesian | 15 | 10 | 5 | [6] | |
| Bengali | Indo-Aryan | 36 | 29 | 7 | ||
| 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 | 24 | 20 | [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] | |
| German | Indo-European | 39 | 25 | 14 | ||
| 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 | 31 | 21 | 10 | 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] | |
| Marathi | Indo-European | 50[40] | 36 | 14 | [40] | |
| Meitei | Sino-Tibetan | 31 | 25 | 6 | [41] | |
| Middle English | Indo-European | 42 | 23 | 19 | Late Middle English | [42] |
| Modern Hebrew | Afroasiatic | 30 | 25 + (2) | 5 | [43] | |
| Mongsen Ao | Sino-Tibetan | 25 | 20 | 5 | [44] | |
| Muna | Austronesian | 30 | 25 | 5 | [33] | |
| Narom | Austronesian | 30 | 24 | 6 | [45] | |
| Nemi | Austronesian | 48 | 43 | 5 | [11] | |
| Norman | Indo-European | 48 | 23 | 25 | [46] | |
| Nuaulu | Austronesian | 16 | 11 | 5 | [9] | |
| Nuer | Nilo-Saharan | 43 + (5) | 20 + (5) | 23 | [47] | |
| 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. | [48] |
| Oromo | Afroasiatic | 34 | 24 | 10 | [49] | |
| 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 | ||
| Russian | Indo-European | 41/42 | 36 | 5/6 | Some linguists view /ɨ/ as separate phoneme, however the prevailing view is that [ɨ] is an allophone of /i/ after 'hard' (not palatalized) consonants. See Russian phonology. | [50] |
| Saʼban | Austronesian | 32 | 22 | 10 | [29] | |
| Saaroa | Austronesian | 17 | 13 | 4 | [51] | |
| Sinhala | Indo-European | 60 | 40 | 20 | [52] | |
| Somali | Afroasiatic | 31 | 21 | 10 | [53] | |
| Spanish | Indo-European | 22 + (2) | 17 + (2) | 5 | Most speakers only have 22 phonemes, as /θ/ is only present in Peninsular Spanish and /ʎ/ is only preserved in some Peninsular and Andean dialects. | [54] |
| Thai | Kra–Dai | 47 | 21 | 21 + 5 | Short and long vowels are considered distinct phonemes. | [55] |
| Thao | Austronesian | 23 + (1) | 20 | 3 + (1) | [56] | |
| Tswana | Niger–Congo | 35 + (2) | 28 + (2) | 7 | [57] | |
| Turkish | Turkic | 31 + (1) | 23 + (1) | 8 | Some consider ⟨ğ⟩ to represent a separate phoneme. | |
| Ubykh | Northwest Caucasian | 86-88 | 84 | 2-4 | 4 consonants are only found in loanwords. | |
| Vaeakau-Taumako | Austronesian | 21 + (3) | 16 + (3) | 5 | [58] | |
| Vietnamese | Austroasiatic | 34 + (1) | 20 + (1) | 14 | While some dialects distinguish ⟨tr⟩ and ⟨ch⟩, the distinction is missing in the Hanoi dialect, described here. | [59] |
| Waimoa | Austronesian | 33 + (3) | 28 + (3) | 5 | [14] | |
| Wambule | Sino-Tibetan | 44 | 33 | 11 | [60] | |
| Wayan | Austronesian | 24 | 19 | 5 | [61] | |
| Wolio | Austronesian | 36 | 31 | 5 | [33] | |