IBAN vs Balinese

Sound inventory comparison

3
Only in IBAN
22
Shared
2
Only in Balinese

What this means for learners

IBAN and Balinese share 22 sounds — roughly 88% of Balinese's inventory overlaps with IBAN. Shared sounds are ones a speaker already knows from their native language and will generally produce and perceive accurately without explicit training.

The 2 sounds found only in Balinese represent the greatest pronunciation challenge for IBAN 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, IBAN has 3 sounds not used in Balinese. Native Balinese speakers learning IBAN 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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