Only in Zuni 29
What this means for learners
Zuni and Nootka share 25 sounds — roughly 46% of Nootka's inventory overlaps with Zuni. Shared sounds are ones a speaker already knows from their native language and will generally produce and perceive accurately without explicit training.
The 22 sounds found only in Nootka represent the greatest pronunciation challenge for Zuni 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, Zuni has 29 sounds not used in Nootka. Native Nootka speakers learning Zuni 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.