Only in Kashimiri 29
What this means for learners
Kashimiri and Khasi share 27 sounds — roughly 48% of Khasi's inventory overlaps with Kashimiri. Shared sounds are ones a speaker already knows from their native language and will generally produce and perceive accurately without explicit training.
The 13 sounds found only in Khasi represent the greatest pronunciation challenge for Kashimiri 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, Kashimiri has 29 sounds not used in Khasi. Native Khasi speakers learning Kashimiri 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.