KALA LAGAW YA vs Makassar
Sound inventory comparison
What this means for learners
KALA LAGAW YA and Makassar share 17 sounds — roughly 71% of Makassar's inventory overlaps with KALA LAGAW YA. Shared sounds are ones a speaker already knows from their native language and will generally produce and perceive accurately without explicit training.
The 6 sounds found only in Makassar represent the greatest pronunciation challenge for KALA LAGAW YA 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, KALA LAGAW YA has 7 sounds not used in Makassar. Native Makassar speakers learning KALA LAGAW YA 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.