/ˈaɪ.pə/

FUR

Family: Furan · Africa · ISO fvr · Glottolog
19
Consonants
11
Vowels

The phoneme inventory below shows every sound that functions as a meaningful unit in FUR — a Furan language spoken in Africa . With 30 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

d̠ʒ ~

approximant

w ~ j ~

fricative

h ~ f ~

lateral fricative

l ~

nasal

n ~ m ~ ɲ ~ ŋ ~

sibilant fricative

s ~ ʃ ~

stop

t ~ d ~ b ~ p ~ ɡ ~ k ~

trill

r ~

Vowels

ɔ ~ o ~ u ~ uː ~ i ~ iː ~ a ~ e ~ ə ~ ɛ ~ aː ~

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

How large is this inventory?

Smaller (11) Average (36) Larger (141)
30
phonemes

FUR has 30 phonemes, placing it in the 33th percentile of languages by inventory size — smaller than most languages.

Compared to English

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

In FUR, not in English (12)

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

ɲ t p k r ɔ o u uː a ə aː

In English, not in FUR (27)

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

pʰ t̠ʃ oː ʊ z ʒ v ts ɒ ɐ ð θ ɘ ɹ kx ɐː ʉː iə eə oe æe ɑe ɵː æo ɐʉ ɒɯ ʉə
Full phoneme comparison: English vs FUR →

Most phonologically similar languages

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

Balinese 74%
Compare →
Kimeru 73%
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Toba-Batak 73%
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Bugis 72%
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Standard Malay 71%
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Compare FUR 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