Only in Siraiki 51
What this means for learners
Siraiki and Maithili share 32 sounds — roughly 39% of Maithili's inventory overlaps with Siraiki. Shared sounds are ones a speaker already knows from their native language and will generally produce and perceive accurately without explicit training.
The 19 sounds found only in Maithili represent the greatest pronunciation challenge for Siraiki 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, Siraiki has 51 sounds not used in Maithili. Native Maithili speakers learning Siraiki 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.