Dan vs Hakka Chinese

Sound inventory comparison

Only in Dan

Shared

Only in Hakka Chinese

Only in Dan 74

˥ ˥˨˧ ˧˥˨ ˧˨ ˩ nʲ nʷ z zʲ zʷ d dʲ ɗ ɗʲ w o oː uː ɔ ɔː ɒː ɒ ɵ wʲ ɵː ũː ũ ɔ̃ ɔ̃ː mʲ ɒ̃ ɒ̃ː b ɓ ɡb bʲ ɓʲ ɡbʲ v vʲ iː ĩ ĩː ᶑ a aː e eː æ æː ɨ ɨː əː ɛ ɛː ãː ã ɛ̃ æ̃ ɛ̃ː æ̃ː ə̃ː ə̃ ɡ ɡʷ ɡʲ sʲ sʷ tʲ pʲ kp kpʲ fʲ kʲ

Shared sounds 18

˦ ˧ ˨ l n u m j i ɲ ə ŋ s t p f k kʷ

Only in Hakka Chinese 29

˥˩ ˧˩ n̩ ɔ̽ m̩ ʋ ɹ̩ e̞ e̞u iu ä äi äu̽ iäu̽ iɔ̽ i̞ä i̞e̞ u̽i ɔ̽i tsʰ ts tʰ pʰ h ç c cʰ kʰ kʷʰ

What this means for learners

Dan and Hakka Chinese share 18 sounds — roughly 20% of Hakka Chinese's inventory overlaps with Dan. Shared sounds are ones a speaker already knows from their native language and will generally produce and perceive accurately without explicit training.

The 29 sounds found only in Hakka Chinese represent the greatest pronunciation challenge for Dan 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, Dan has 74 sounds not used in Hakka Chinese. Native Hakka Chinese speakers learning Dan 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.

Compare with another language

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