Editing Phoneme (section)

==Numbers of phonemes in different languages==
All known languages use only a small subset of the many possible [[speech sound|sounds]] that the human [[speech organs]] can produce, and, because of [[allophony]], the number of distinct phonemes will generally be smaller than the number of identifiably different sounds. Different languages vary considerably in the number of phonemes they have in their systems (although apparent variation may sometimes result from the different approaches taken by the linguists doing the analysis). The total phonemic inventory in languages varies from as few as 9–11 in [[Pirahã language|Pirahã]] and 11 in [[Rotokas language|Rotokas]] to as many as 141 in [[ǃKung languages|ǃXũ]].{{sfn|Crystal|2010|p=173}}<ref name="Everett 1986">{{cite book |last=Everett |first=Daniel L. |author-link=Daniel Everett|date=July 1, 1986|title=Handbook of Amazonian Languages|volume=1|chapter=Pirahã|url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110850819/html|url-access=subscription |location=Berlin, Germany |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton|pages=315–317|isbn=9783110102574|doi=10.1515/9783110850819.200}}</ref><ref name="Everett 2008">{{cite book |title=Don't Sleep, there are Snakes |publisher=Pantheon Books |author=Everett, Daniel L. |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-375-42502-8 |pages=178–179 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/dontsleeptherear00ever }}</ref>

The number of phonemically distinct [[vowel]]s can be as low as two, as in [[Ubykh language|Ubykh]] and [[Arrernte language|Arrernte]]. At the other extreme, the [[Bantu languages|Bantu]] language [[Ngwe language|Ngwe]] has 14 vowel qualities, 12 of which may occur long or short, making 26 oral vowels, plus six nasalized vowels, long and short, making a total of 38 vowels; while [[!Xóõ language|!Xóõ]] achieves 31 pure vowels, not counting its additional variation by vowel length, by varying the [[phonation]]. As regards [[consonant]] phonemes, [[Puinave language|Puinave]] and the Papuan language [[Tauade language|Tauade]] each have just seven, and [[Rotokas language|Rotokas]] has only six. [[!Xóõ language|!Xóõ]], on the other hand, has somewhere around 77, and [[Ubykh phonology|Ubykh]] 81. The [[English language]] uses a rather large set of 13 to 21 vowel phonemes, including diphthongs, although its 22 to 26 [[English consonants|consonants]] are close to average. Across all languages, the average number of consonant phonemes per language is about 22, while the average number of vowel phonemes is about 8.<ref>{{Cite web|title=UPSID Nr. of segments|url=http://www.phonetik.uni-frankfurt.de/upsid_nr_seg.html|access-date=2022-01-22|website=www.phonetik.uni-frankfurt.de}}</ref>

Some languages, such as [[French language|French]], have no phonemic [[tone (linguistics)|tone]] or [[stress (linguistics)|stress]], while [[Cantonese]] and several of the [[Kam–Sui languages]] have six to nine tones (depending on how they are counted), and the Kam-Sui [[Kam language|Dong language]] has nine to 15 tones by the same measure. One of the [[Kru languages]], [[Wobé language|Wobé]], has been claimed to have 14,<ref name=Bearth&Link>{{cite journal | url = https://journals.linguisticsociety.org/elanguage/sal/article/view/1070.html | title = The tone puzzle of Wobe | first1 = Thomas | last1 = Bearth | first2 = Christa | last2 = Link | journal = Studies in African Linguistics | volume = 11 | issue = 2 | year = 1980 | pages = 147–207 | access-date = 5 January 2019 | archive-date = 24 February 2021 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210224210712/https://journals.linguisticsociety.org/elanguage/sal/article/view/1070.html | url-status = dead }}</ref> though this is disputed.<ref>{{cite journal | first = John Victor | last = Singler | title = On the underlying representation of contour tones in Wobe | journal = Studies in African Linguistics | volume = 15 | issue = 1 | year = 1984 | pages = 59–75 | doi = 10.32473/sal.v15i1.107520 | s2cid = 170335215 | doi-access = free }}</ref>

{{anchor|Most common}}
The most common vowel system consists of the five vowels {{IPA|/i/, /e/, /a/, /o/, /u/}}. The most common consonants are {{IPA|/p/, /t/, /k/, /m/, /n/}}.<ref>{{cite web|editor-last1=Moran|editor-first1=Steven|editor-last2=McCloy|editor-first2=Daniel|editor-last3=Wright|editor-first3=Richard|year=2014|title=PHOIBLE Online|place=Leipzig|publisher=Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology|url=http://phoible.org|access-date=2019-01-05}}</ref> Relatively few languages lack any of these consonants, although it does happen: for example, [[Arabic]] lacks {{IPA|/p/}}, [[Hawaiian language|standard Hawaiian]] lacks {{IPA|/t/}}, [[Mohawk language|Mohawk]] and [[Tlingit language|Tlingit]] lack {{IPA|/p/}} and {{IPA|/m/}}, [[Hupa language|Hupa]] lacks both {{IPA|/p/}} and a simple {{IPA|/k/}}, colloquial [[Samoan language|Samoan]] lacks {{IPA|/t/}} and {{IPA|/n/}}, while [[Rotokas language|Rotokas]] and [[Quileute language|Quileute]] lack {{IPA|/m/}} and {{IPA|/n/}}.