What this means for learners
Moxo and Garo share 13 sounds — roughly 50% of Garo's inventory overlaps with Moxo. 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 Garo represent the greatest pronunciation challenge for Moxo 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, Moxo has 12 sounds not used in Garo. Native Garo speakers learning Moxo 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.