/ˈaɪ.pə/

KURDISH

Family: Indo-European · Eurasia · ISO kmr · Glottolog
30
Consonants
17
Vowels

The phoneme inventory below shows every sound that functions as a meaningful unit in KURDISH — a Indo-European language spoken in Eurasia . With 47 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

t̠ʃ ~ d̠ʒ ~

approximant

w ~ j ~

fricative

f ~ v ~ ʕ ~ ħ ~ x ~ ɣ ~

lateral fricative

l̪|l ~ lˤ ~

nasal

n̪ ~ m ~ ŋ ~

sibilant fricative

s̪ ~ sˤ ~ z̪ ~ ʃ ~ ʒ ~

stop

d̪ ~ t̪ ~ p ~ b ~ ʔ ~ q ~ k ~ ɡ ~

tap

ɾ̪|ɾ ~

trill

r̪|r ~

Vowels

ʊ ~ uː ~ o̞ː ~ iː ~ ɪ ~ ui ~ ɨ ~ e̞ː ~ ə ~ aː ~ ai ~ au ~ əu ~ e̞i ~ o̞i ~ e̞u ~ əi ~

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

How large is this inventory?

Smaller (11) Average (36) Larger (141)
47
phonemes

KURDISH has 47 phonemes, placing it in the 79th percentile of languages by inventory size — larger than most languages.

Compared to English

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

In KURDISH, not in English (33)

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

ʕ ħ x ɣ l̪|l lˤ n̪ s̪ sˤ z̪ d̪ t̪ p ʔ q k ɾ̪|ɾ r̪|r uː o̞ː ɪ ui ɨ e̞ː ə aː ai au əu e̞i o̞i e̞u əi

In English, not in KURDISH (31)

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

h l n pʰ s e i oː d z ts 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 KURDISH →

Most phonologically similar languages

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

Kurdish 54%
Compare →
Kalmyk 34%
Compare →
Lebanese Arabic 33%
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Uyghur 32%
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MANCHU 31%
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Compare KURDISH 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