/ˈaɪ.pə/

Lingala

Family: Atlantic-Congo · Africa · ISO lin · Glottolog · 24,000,000 speakers
15
Consonants
7
Vowels

The phoneme inventory below shows every sound that functions as a meaningful unit in Lingala — a Atlantic-Congo language spoken in Africa . With 22 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 ~ j ~

fricative

f ~

lateral fricative

l ~

nasal

n ~ m ~ ɲ ~ ŋ ~

sibilant fricative

z ~ s ~

stop

t ~ d ~ b ~ p ~ k ~

Vowels

u ~ o ~ ɔ ~ i ~ e ~ ɛ ~ a ~

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

How large is this inventory?

Smaller (11) Average (36) Larger (141)
22
phonemes

Lingala has 22 phonemes, placing it in the 9th percentile of languages by inventory size — a notably small inventory.

Compared to English

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

In Lingala, not in English (8)

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

ɲ t p k u o ɔ a

In English, not in Lingala (31)

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

h pʰ t̠ʃ iː oː ʊ ɡ ʃ ʒ 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 Lingala →

Most phonologically similar languages

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

Bikol (Bicolano) 67%
Compare →
Makassar 67%
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BODO 65%
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Balinese 64%
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Kimeru 63%
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Compare Lingala 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