/ˈaɪ.pə/

TETUN

Family: Austronesian · Papunesia · ISO tet · Glottolog · 1,800,000 speakers
14
Consonants
5
Vowels

The phoneme inventory below shows every sound that functions as a meaningful unit in TETUN — a Austronesian language spoken in Papunesia . With 19 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

approximant

w *

fricative

h ~ f ~

lateral fricative

l̪|l ~

nasal

n̪|n ~ m ~

sibilant fricative

s̪|s ~

stop

t̪|t ~ d̪|d ~ p ~ b ~ ʔ ~ k ~

trill

r̪|r ~

Vowels

o̞ ~ u ~ i ~ a ~ e̞ ~

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

How large is this inventory?

Smaller (11) Average (36) Larger (141)
19
phonemes

TETUN has 19 phonemes, placing it in the 3th percentile of languages by inventory size — a notably small inventory.

Compared to English

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

In TETUN, not in English (13)

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

l̪|l n̪|n s̪|s t̪|t d̪|d p ʔ k r̪|r o̞ u a e̞

In English, not in TETUN (39)

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

j l n pʰ s t̠ʃ ŋ e iː oː d ʊ z ɡ ʃ ʒ 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 TETUN →

Most phonologically similar languages

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

Cebuano 33%
Compare →
Hiligaynon 33%
Compare →
MANCHU 33%
Compare →
Tongan; Tonga 33%
Compare →
Kapampangan 32%
Compare →

Compare TETUN 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