/ˈaɪ.pə/

NONI

Family: Atlantic-Congo · Africa · ISO nhu · Glottolog
19
Consonants
14
Vowels

The phoneme inventory below shows every sound that functions as a meaningful unit in NONI — a Atlantic-Congo language spoken in Africa . With 33 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 ~ d̠ʒ ~

approximant

w ~ j ~ ɰ *

fricative

f ~

lateral fricative

l̪|l ~

nasal

n̪|n ~ m ~ ɲ ~ ŋ ~

sibilant fricative

s̪|s ~ ʃ ~

stop

d̪|d ~ t̪|t ~ b ~ ʔ * k ~ ɡ ~

Vowels

ʊ ~ ɔː ~ ɔ ~ uː ~ oː ~ o ~ i ~ iː ~ a ~ e̞ː ~ ə ~ ɛː ~ ɛ ~ aː ~

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

How large is this inventory?

Smaller (11) Average (36) Larger (141)
33
phonemes

NONI has 33 phonemes, placing it in the 40th percentile of languages by inventory size — roughly average for a human language.

Compared to English

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

In NONI, not in English (18)

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

ɰ l̪|l n̪|n ɲ s̪|s d̪|d t̪|t ʔ k ɔː ɔ uː o a e̞ː ə ɛː aː

In English, not in NONI (30)

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

h l n pʰ s e d z ʒ v ts ɒ ɐ ð θ ɘ ɹ kx ɐː ʉː iə eə oe æe ɑe ɵː æo ɐʉ ɒɯ ʉə
Full phoneme comparison: English vs NONI →

Most phonologically similar languages

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

Slovene 43%
Compare →
Kabiyɛ 40%
Compare →
Lao 39%
Compare →
Tagalog 39%
Compare →
Bemba 38%
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Compare NONI 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