/ˈaɪ.pə/

CHEROKEE

Family: Iroquoian · North America · ISO chr · Glottolog
11
Consonants
6
Vowels

The phoneme inventory below shows every sound that functions as a meaningful unit in CHEROKEE — a Iroquoian language spoken in North America . With 17 phonemes, it has a relatively small inventory compared to the world's languages. Sounds marked with a dashed border (*) are marginal: they appear only in loanwords or highly specialized contexts and are not part of the core phonological system.

Consonants

affricate

dz ~

approximant

w ~ j ~

fricative

h ~

lateral fricative

l ~

nasal

n ~ m *

sibilant fricative

ʃ ~

stop

d ~ ʔ ~ ɡ ~

Vowels

u ~ o̞ ~ i ~ e̞ ~ a ~ ə̃ ~

* Marginal phoneme — occurs only in loanwords or rare contexts.

How large is this inventory?

Smaller (11) Average (36) Larger (141)
17
phonemes

CHEROKEE has 17 phonemes, placing it in the 1th percentile of languages by inventory size — a notably small inventory.

Compared to English

For English speakers learning CHEROKEE, these are the sounds that will require the most focused practice.

In CHEROKEE, not in English (7)

These sounds don't exist in English — English speakers will need to learn them from scratch.

dz ʔ u o̞ e̞ a ə̃

In English, not in CHEROKEE (35)

English speakers learning CHEROKEE won't use these sounds — they'll need to suppress them.

pʰ s t̠ʃ ŋ e iː oː b ʊ z ʒ f v ts d̠ʒ ɛ ɒ ɐ ð θ ɘ ɹ kx ɐː ʉː iə eə oe æe ɑe ɵː æo ɐʉ ɒɯ ʉə
Full phoneme comparison: English vs CHEROKEE →

Most phonologically similar languages

Ranked by Jaccard similarity — the proportion of phonemes shared relative to the combined inventory of both languages.

Cebuano 46%
Compare →
Bikol (Bicolano) 41%
Compare →
Bugis 40%
Compare →
Hiligaynon 40%
Compare →
Garo 39%
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Compare CHEROKEE with another language

See which sounds are shared and which are unique.

vs Hakka Chinese vs SEDANG vs Kharia vs Bhumij vs Kota vs Burushaski vs Kabardian vs Lak vs Ket vs Yao