Makassar vs BODO

Sound inventory comparison

5
Only in Makassar
18
Shared
3
Only in BODO

What this means for learners

Makassar and BODO share 18 sounds — roughly 78% of BODO's inventory overlaps with Makassar. Shared sounds are ones a speaker already knows from their native language and will generally produce and perceive accurately without explicit training.

The 3 sounds found only in BODO represent the greatest pronunciation challenge for Makassar 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, Makassar has 5 sounds not used in BODO. Native BODO speakers learning Makassar 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.

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