Only in Bariba 0
No unique sounds
What this means for learners
Bariba and Dioula share 31 sounds — roughly 79% of Dioula's inventory overlaps with Bariba. Shared sounds are ones a speaker already knows from their native language and will generally produce and perceive accurately without explicit training.
The 8 sounds found only in Dioula represent the greatest pronunciation challenge for Bariba speakers. The adult brain tends to map unfamiliar sounds onto the closest native equivalent — a process that produces the characteristic "accent" of a second-language speaker. Learning to hear and produce these sounds as distinct requires focused ear training, not just repetition.
Phoneme inventories from PHOIBLE. Data reflects one documented inventory per language; some variation exists across dialects and sources.