What this means for learners
Tzeltal and Hiligaynon share 17 sounds — roughly 57% of Hiligaynon's inventory overlaps with Tzeltal. Shared sounds are ones a speaker already knows from their native language and will generally produce and perceive accurately without explicit training.
The 8 sounds found only in Hiligaynon represent the greatest pronunciation challenge for Tzeltal 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, Tzeltal has 13 sounds not used in Hiligaynon. Native Hiligaynon speakers learning Tzeltal 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.