The phoneme inventory below shows every sound that functions as a meaningful unit in Kpelle — a Mande language spoken in Africa . With 49 phonemes, it has a relatively large inventory compared to the world's languages. Like many languages in its region, Kpelle is tonal — the pitch at which a syllable is spoken changes its meaning. 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
tap
Vowels
Tones
* Marginal phoneme — occurs only in loanwords or rare contexts.
How large is this inventory?
Kpelle 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 Kpelle, these are the sounds that will require the most focused practice.
In Kpelle, not in English (33)
These sounds don't exist in English — English speakers will need to learn them from scratch.
Most phonologically similar languages
Ranked by Jaccard similarity — the proportion of phonemes shared relative to the combined inventory of both languages.
Compare Kpelle with another language
See which sounds are shared and which are unique.