Only in Central Khmer 36
What this means for learners
Central Khmer and Garo share 10 sounds — roughly 22% of Garo's inventory overlaps with Central Khmer. Shared sounds are ones a speaker already knows from their native language and will generally produce and perceive accurately without explicit training.
The 16 sounds found only in Garo represent the greatest pronunciation challenge for Central Khmer 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, Central Khmer has 36 sounds not used in Garo. Native Garo speakers learning Central Khmer 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.