Modern Hebrew vs Javanese
Sound inventory comparison
What this means for learners
Modern Hebrew and Javanese share 17 sounds — roughly 52% of Javanese's inventory overlaps with Modern Hebrew. Shared sounds are ones a speaker already knows from their native language and will generally produce and perceive accurately without explicit training.
The 16 sounds found only in Javanese represent the greatest pronunciation challenge for Modern Hebrew 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, Modern Hebrew has 13 sounds not used in Javanese. Native Javanese speakers learning Modern Hebrew 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.