/ˈaɪ.pə/

Epena

Family: Chocoan · South America · ISO sja · Glottolog
17
Consonants
21
Vowels

The phoneme inventory below shows every sound that functions as a meaningful unit in Epena — a Chocoan language spoken in South America . With 38 phonemes, it has an average-sized 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

t̠ʃ ~

approximant

w ~ j ~

fricative

h ~

sibilant fricative

s ~

stop

tʰ ~ t ~ d ~ p ~ pʰ ~ b ~ ʔ ~ ɡ ~ kʰ ~ k ~

tap

ɾ ~

trill

r ~

Vowels

oː ~ o ~ u ~ uː ~ iː ~ i ~ ɨ ~ ɨː ~ e ~ aː ~ a ~ eː ~ ə ~ əː ~ õ ~ ũ ~ ĩ ~ ẽ ~ ã ~ ə̃ ~ ɨ̃ ~

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

How large is this inventory?

Smaller (11) Average (36) Larger (141)
38
phonemes

Epena has 38 phonemes, placing it in the 56th percentile of languages by inventory size — roughly average for a human language.

Compared to English

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

In Epena, not in English (25)

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

tʰ t p ʔ kʰ k ɾ r o u uː ɨ ɨː aː a eː ə əː õ ũ ĩ ẽ ã ə̃ ɨ̃

In English, not in Epena (32)

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

l m n ŋ ʊ z ʃ 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 Epena →

Most phonologically similar languages

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

Khasi 53%
Compare →
Moore 47%
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Tagalog 47%
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Lao 45%
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Mandingo 44%
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Compare Epena 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