/ˈaɪ.pə/

SHASTA

Family: Shastan · North America · ISO sht · Glottolog
17
Consonants
4
Vowels

The phoneme inventory below shows every sound that functions as a meaningful unit in SHASTA — a Shastan language spoken in North America . With 21 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

t̠ʃʼ ~ t̠ʃ ~

approximant

R̪|R ~ w ~ j ~

fricative

h ~ x ~

nasal

n̪|n ~ m ~

sibilant fricative

s̪|s ~

stop

t̪ʼ|tʼ ~ t̪|t ~ pʼ ~ p ~ ʔ ~ kʼ ~ k ~

Vowels

u ~ i ~ e̞ ~ a ~

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

How large is this inventory?

Smaller (11) Average (36) Larger (141)
21
phonemes

SHASTA has 21 phonemes, placing it in the 7th percentile of languages by inventory size — a notably small inventory.

Compared to English

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

In SHASTA, not in English (15)

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

t̠ʃʼ R̪|R x n̪|n s̪|s t̪ʼ|tʼ t̪|t pʼ p ʔ kʼ k u e̞ a

In English, not in SHASTA (39)

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

l n pʰ s ŋ e iː oː b d ʊ z ɡ 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 SHASTA →

Most phonologically similar languages

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

TETUN 48%
Compare →
Cebuano 35%
Compare →
Bugis 31%
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Hiligaynon 31%
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Standard Malay 31%
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Compare SHASTA 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