Only in NYAH KUR 28
What this means for learners
NYAH KUR and Yao share 22 sounds — roughly 44% of Yao'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 27 sounds found only in Yao 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 28 sounds not used in Yao. Native Yao 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.