Only in LAI 42
What this means for learners
LAI and Kota share 10 sounds — roughly 19% of Kota's inventory overlaps with LAI. Shared sounds are ones a speaker already knows from their native language and will generally produce and perceive accurately without explicit training.
The 31 sounds found only in Kota represent the greatest pronunciation challenge for LAI 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, LAI has 42 sounds not used in Kota. Native Kota speakers learning LAI 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.