What this means for learners
Margi and Lahu share 24 sounds — roughly 52% of Lahu's inventory overlaps with Margi. Shared sounds are ones a speaker already knows from their native language and will generally produce and perceive accurately without explicit training.
The 22 sounds found only in Lahu represent the greatest pronunciation challenge for Margi 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, Margi has 20 sounds not used in Lahu. Native Lahu speakers learning Margi 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.