Only in Hopi 36
What this means for learners
Hopi and Lahu share 13 sounds — roughly 27% of Lahu's inventory overlaps with Hopi. Shared sounds are ones a speaker already knows from their native language and will generally produce and perceive accurately without explicit training.
The 33 sounds found only in Lahu represent the greatest pronunciation challenge for Hopi 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, Hopi has 36 sounds not used in Lahu. Native Lahu speakers learning Hopi 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.