/ˈaɪ.pə/

Kinyarwanda

Family: Atlantic-Congo · Africa · ISO kin · Glottolog · 9,800,000 speakers
39
Consonants
10
Vowels

The phoneme inventory below shows every sound that functions as a meaningful unit in Kinyarwanda — a Atlantic-Congo language spoken in Africa . With 49 phonemes, it has a relatively large 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 ~ ts ~ pf ~ d̠ʒ ~ t̠ʃ ~

approximant

w ~ j ~

fricative

β ~ hʷ ~ h ~ hʲ ~ f ~ v ~

nasal

n ~ m ~ ɲ ~ ɴ ~ ŋ ~ ŋʷ ~

sibilant fricative

s ~ z ~ ʃ ~ ʒ ~

stop

t ~ ɗ ~ d ~ p ~ b ~ pʰ ~ kʲ ~ ɡ ~ ɡʲ ~ kʷ ~ ɡʷ ~ k ~ kʰ ~

tap

ɽʱ ~ ɽ ~

trill

r ~

Vowels

u ~ uː ~ o ~ oː ~ iː ~ i ~ a ~ aː ~ e ~ eː ~

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

How large is this inventory?

Smaller (11) Average (36) Larger (141)
49
phonemes

Kinyarwanda has 49 phonemes, placing it in the 82th percentile of languages by inventory size — a notably large inventory.

Compared to English

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

In Kinyarwanda, not in English (26)

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

dz pf β hʷ hʲ ɲ ɴ ŋʷ t ɗ p kʲ ɡʲ kʷ ɡʷ k kʰ ɽʱ ɽ r u uː o a aː eː

In English, not in Kinyarwanda (22)

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

l ʊ 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 Kinyarwanda →

Most phonologically similar languages

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

Nupe 53%
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Rundi 53%
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Kimeru 52%
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Luganda 52%
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Mandingo 51%
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Compare Kinyarwanda 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