/ˈaɪ.pə/

NICOBARESE

Family: Austroasiatic · Eurasia · ISO caq · Glottolog
16
Consonants
9
Vowels

The phoneme inventory below shows every sound that functions as a meaningful unit in NICOBARESE — a Austroasiatic language spoken in Eurasia . With 25 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

affricate

t̠ʃ ~

approximant

w ~ j ~

fricative

h ~ f ~

lateral fricative

l ~

nasal

n ~ m ~ n̠ ~ ŋ ~

sibilant fricative

s̪ ~

stop

t ~ p ~ k ~

tap

ɾ ~

trill

r ~

Vowels

ɒ ~ ɔ ~ o ~ u ~ i ~ ɛ ~ ɯ ~ ɘ ~ e ~

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

How large is this inventory?

Smaller (11) Average (36) Larger (141)
25
phonemes

NICOBARESE has 25 phonemes, placing it in the 16th percentile of languages by inventory size — a notably small inventory.

Compared to English

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

In NICOBARESE, not in English (11)

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

n̠ s̪ t p k ɾ r ɔ o u ɯ

In English, not in NICOBARESE (31)

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

pʰ s iː oː b d ʊ z ɡ ʃ ʒ v ts d̠ʒ ɐ ð θ ɹ kx ɐː ʉː iə eə oe æe ɑe ɵː æo ɐʉ ɒɯ ʉə
Full phoneme comparison: English vs NICOBARESE →

Most phonologically similar languages

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

Toba-Batak 53%
Compare →
Hiligaynon 52%
Compare →
Lingala 52%
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Sentani 50%
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Balinese 48%
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Compare NICOBARESE 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