What this means for learners
Konkani and Kota share 29 sounds — roughly 64% of Kota's inventory overlaps with Konkani. Shared sounds are ones a speaker already knows from their native language and will generally produce and perceive accurately without explicit training.
The 12 sounds found only in Kota represent the greatest pronunciation challenge for Konkani 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, Konkani has 16 sounds not used in Kota. Native Kota speakers learning Konkani 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.