/ˈaɪ.pə/

SAMA

Family: Austronesian · Papunesia · ISO bdl · Glottolog
26
Consonants
6
Vowels

The phoneme inventory below shows every sound that functions as a meaningful unit in SAMA — a Austronesian language spoken in Papunesia . With 32 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

n̪s̪|ns ~ n̠t̠ʃ ~ n̠d̠ʒ ~ t̠ʃ ~ d̠ʒ ~

approximant

w ~ j ~

fricative

h ~

lateral fricative

l̪|l ~

nasal

n̪|n ~ m ~ ɲ ~ ŋ ~

sibilant fricative

s̪|s ~

stop

t̪|t ~ d̪|d ~ n̪t̪|nt ~ p ~ b ~ mb ~ mp ~ ʔ ~ ŋk ~ ɡ ~ k ~

trill

r̪|r ~

Vowels

o̞ ~ u ~ i ~ a ~ ə ~ e̞ ~

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

How large is this inventory?

Smaller (11) Average (36) Larger (141)
32
phonemes

SAMA has 32 phonemes, placing it in the 37th percentile of languages by inventory size — smaller than most languages.

Compared to English

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

In SAMA, not in English (22)

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

n̪s̪|ns n̠t̠ʃ n̠d̠ʒ l̪|l n̪|n ɲ s̪|s t̪|t d̪|d n̪t̪|nt p mb mp ʔ ŋk k r̪|r o̞ u a ə e̞

In English, not in SAMA (35)

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

l n pʰ s e iː oː d ʊ z ʃ ʒ f v ts 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 SAMA →

Most phonologically similar languages

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

TETUN 55%
Compare →
Bugis 43%
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Sundanese 41%
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Balinese 40%
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Cebuano 39%
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Compare SAMA 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