/ˈaɪ.pə/

Mapudungun

Family: Araucanian · South America · ISO arn · Glottolog
22
Consonants
6
Vowels

The phoneme inventory below shows every sound that functions as a meaningful unit in Mapudungun — a Araucanian language spoken in South America . With 28 phonemes, it has an average-sized 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 ~ ʈʂ ~

approximant

w ~ j ~

fricative

θ ~ f ~ ɣ ~

lateral fricative

l̪ ~ l ~ ʎ ~

nasal

n ~ n̪ ~ m ~ ɲ ~ ŋ ~

sibilant fricative

s ~ ʃ ~ ʐ ~

stop

t̪ ~ t ~ p ~ k ~

Vowels

o ~ u ~ i ~ e ~ a ~ ɯ ~

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

How large is this inventory?

Smaller (11) Average (36) Larger (141)
28
phonemes

Mapudungun has 28 phonemes, placing it in the 26th percentile of languages by inventory size — smaller than most languages.

Compared to English

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

In Mapudungun, not in English (15)

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

ʈʂ ɣ l̪ ʎ n̪ ɲ ʐ t̪ t p k o u a ɯ

In English, not in Mapudungun (32)

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

h pʰ iː oː b d ʊ z ɡ ʒ v ts d̠ʒ ɛ ɒ ɐ ð ɘ ɹ kx ɐː ʉː iə eə oe æe ɑe ɵː æo ɐʉ ɒɯ ʉə
Full phoneme comparison: English vs Mapudungun →

Most phonologically similar languages

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

Bemba 56%
Compare →
Lingala 52%
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Bikol (Bicolano) 51%
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Balinese 49%
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Kimeru 49%
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Compare Mapudungun 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