/ˈaɪ.pə/

PIRAHA

Family: Language isolate · South America · ISO myp · Glottolog
8
Consonants
3
Vowels

The phoneme inventory below shows every sound that functions as a meaningful unit in PIRAHA — a Language isolate language spoken in South America . With 11 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

fricative

h ~

sibilant fricative

s̪|s ~

stop

t̪|t ~ b ~ p ~ ʔ ~ k ~ ɡ ~

Vowels

o̞ ~ i ~ a ~

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

How large is this inventory?

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

PIRAHA has 11 phonemes, placing it in the 0th percentile of languages by inventory size — a notably small inventory.

Compared to English

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

In PIRAHA, not in English (7)

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

s̪|s t̪|t p ʔ k o̞ a

In English, not in PIRAHA (41)

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

j l m n pʰ s t̠ʃ w ŋ e iː oː d ʊ z ʃ ʒ f v ts d̠ʒ ɛ ɒ ɐ ð θ ɘ ɹ kx ɐː ʉː iə eə oe æe ɑe ɵː æo ɐʉ ɒɯ ʉə
Full phoneme comparison: English vs PIRAHA →

Most phonologically similar languages

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

TETUN 50%
Compare →
Cebuano 33%
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Kapampangan 32%
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Bugis 29%
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Hiligaynon 29%
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Compare PIRAHA 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