List of languages by number of phonemes

This partial list of languages is sorted by a partial count of phonemes. Languages in this list cannot be directly compared: Counts of the phonemes in the inventory of a language can differ radically between sources, occasionally by a factor of several hundred percent. For instance, Received Pronunciation of English has been claimed to have anywhere between 11 and 27 vowels, whereas West ǃXoon has been analyzed as having anywhere from 87 to 164 consonants.

List

This list features standard dialects of languages. The languages are classified under primary language families, which may be hypothesized, marked in italics, but do not include ones discredited by mainstream scholars. Dark-shaded cells indicate extinct languages. The parenthesized righthand side of expressions indicates marginal phonemes.