/ˈaɪ.pə/

IRARUTU

Family: Austronesian · Papunesia · ISO irh · Glottolog
12
Consonants
7
Vowels

The phoneme inventory below shows every sound that functions as a meaningful unit in IRARUTU — a Austronesian language spoken in Papunesia . With 19 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 ~

fricative

ɸ ~ ʝ ~

nasal

n̪ ~ m ~

sibilant fricative

s̪ ~

stop

n̪d̪ ~ t̪ ~ mb ~ k ~ ŋɡ ~

tap

ɾ̪|ɾ ~

Vowels

o ~ u ~ ɔ ~ i ~ a ~ e ~ ɛ ~

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

How large is this inventory?

Smaller (11) Average (36) Larger (141)
19
phonemes

IRARUTU has 19 phonemes, placing it in the 3th percentile of languages by inventory size — a notably small inventory.

Compared to English

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

In IRARUTU, not in English (14)

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

ɸ ʝ n̪ s̪ n̪d̪ t̪ mb k ŋɡ ɾ̪|ɾ o u ɔ a

In English, not in IRARUTU (40)

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

h j l n pʰ s t̠ʃ ŋ iː oː b d 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 IRARUTU →

Most phonologically similar languages

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

Tongan; Tonga 33%
Compare →
Lingala 32%
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Asmat 31%
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Kikuyu 31%
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Selepet 29%
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Compare IRARUTU 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