Min Dong Chinese

15
Consonants
20
Vowels

The phoneme inventory below shows every sound that functions as a meaningful unit in Min Dong Chinese — a Sino-Tibetan language spoken in Eurasia . With 35 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

fricative

lateral fricative

sibilant fricative

Vowels

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

How large is this inventory?

Smaller (11) Average (36) Larger (141)
35
phonemes

Min Dong Chinese has 35 phonemes, placing it in the 46th percentile of languages by inventory size — roughly average for a human language.

Compared to English

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

In Min Dong Chinese, not in English (25)

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

In English, not in Min Dong Chinese (35)

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

Most phonologically similar languages

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

Compare Min Dong Chinese with another language

See which sounds are shared and which are unique.