/ˈaɪ.pə/

SHIRIANA

Family: Arawakan · South America · ISO xir · Glottolog
13
Consonants
12
Vowels

The phoneme inventory below shows every sound that functions as a meaningful unit in SHIRIANA — a Arawakan language spoken in South America . 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 ~

nasal

n̪|n ~ m ~

sibilant fricative

s̪|s ~ ʃ ~

stop

t̪|t ~ t̪ʰ|tʰ ~ p ~ k ~

tap

ɾ̪|ɾ ~

Vowels

o̞ ~ i ~ a ~ ə ~ e̞ ~ ɯ ~ õ̞ ~ ĩ ~ ɯ̃ ~ ẽ̞ ~ ə̃ ~ ã ~

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

How large is this inventory?

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

SHIRIANA 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 SHIRIANA, these are the sounds that will require the most focused practice.

In SHIRIANA, not in English (18)

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

n̪|n s̪|s t̪|t t̪ʰ|tʰ p k ɾ̪|ɾ o̞ a ə e̞ ɯ õ̞ ĩ ɯ̃ ẽ̞ ə̃ ã

In English, not in SHIRIANA (38)

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

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

Most phonologically similar languages

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

TETUN 38%
Compare →
Balinese 26%
Compare →
Bugis 25%
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Chasta Costa 25%
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Ilocano 25%
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Compare SHIRIANA 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