/ˈaɪ.pə/

EKARI

Family: Nuclear Trans New Guinea · Papunesia · ISO ekg · Glottolog
10
Consonants
5
Vowels

The phoneme inventory below shows every sound that functions as a meaningful unit in EKARI — a Nuclear Trans New Guinea language spoken in Papunesia . With 15 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

approximant

w ~ j ~

nasal

n ~ m ~

stop

d ~ t ~ p ~ b ~ ɡˡ ~ k ~

Vowels

u ~ ɔ ~ i ~ ɛ ~ a ~

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

How large is this inventory?

Smaller (11) Average (36) Larger (141)
15
phonemes

EKARI has 15 phonemes, placing it in the 1th percentile of languages by inventory size — a notably small inventory.

Compared to English

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

In EKARI, not in English (7)

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

t p ɡˡ k u ɔ a

In English, not in EKARI (37)

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

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

Most phonologically similar languages

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

Lingala 61%
Compare →
Sentani 52%
Compare →
Cebuano 50%
Compare →
Toba-Batak 50%
Compare →
Makassar 46%
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Compare EKARI 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