Shared sounds 38
Only in Dioula 1
What this means for learners
Fɔn and Dioula share 38 sounds — roughly 90% of Dioula's inventory overlaps with Fɔn. Shared sounds are ones a speaker already knows from their native language and will generally produce and perceive accurately without explicit training.
The 1 sound found only in Dioula represent the greatest pronunciation challenge for Fɔn 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, Fɔn has 4 sounds not used in Dioula. Native Dioula speakers learning Fɔn 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.