Shared sounds 45
What this means for learners
Bhojpuri and Magahi share 45 sounds — roughly 88% of Magahi's inventory overlaps with Bhojpuri. Shared sounds are ones a speaker already knows from their native language and will generally produce and perceive accurately without explicit training.
The 5 sounds found only in Magahi represent the greatest pronunciation challenge for Bhojpuri 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.
Conversely, Bhojpuri has 6 sounds not used in Magahi. Native Magahi speakers learning Bhojpuri will face the mirror-image challenge with these sounds.
Phoneme inventories from PHOIBLE. Data reflects one documented inventory per language; some variation exists across dialects and sources.