Only in NYAH KUR 33
What this means for learners
NYAH KUR and Bhumij share 17 sounds — roughly 31% of Bhumij's inventory overlaps with NYAH KUR. Shared sounds are ones a speaker already knows from their native language and will generally produce and perceive accurately without explicit training.
The 37 sounds found only in Bhumij represent the greatest pronunciation challenge for NYAH KUR 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, NYAH KUR has 33 sounds not used in Bhumij. Native Bhumij speakers learning NYAH KUR 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.