Which language(s) has the most phonemes?

[fandango]

…and which has the fewest?

[Palve]

Most phonemes: Khmer (spoken in Cambodia)
Fewest phonemes: Rotokas (a language spoken in Papua New Guinea)

Sad thing is, I didn’t even have to open a book for that one. However, I cannot give you exact numbers.

[matt_mcl]

An interesting tidbit is that Quebecois French has among the largest number of vowel phonemes (or was it allophones?) of any language in the world.

[dtilque]

*Originally posted by JellyDonut *
Most phonemes: Khmer (spoken in Cambodia)
Fewest phonemes: Rotokas (a language spoken in Papua New Guinea)

I thought Hawaiian had the fewest with 13. Anyone know how many Rotokas has?

[Palve]

*Originally posted by matt_mcl *
**An interesting tidbit is that Quebecois French has among the largest number of vowel phonemes (or was it allophones?) of any language in the world. **

Probably allophones. Just compare the ‘o’ in Québécois “comme” and “alors” and “coquin” etc. And there are some languages that have a lot of vowel phonemes (German and English are two good examples).

Québécois is notorious for being a very rapidly spoken language. For instance, one can express the phrase “I am at John’s house” in 3 syllables “Chu chez Jean” compared with, say Spanish “Yo estoy en la casa de Juan” which has 9 (although most Spanish speakers will omit the initial “yo”). It is because of this efficiency that I like to speak Québécois.

[Palve]

*Originally posted by dtilque *
**

*Originally posted by JellyDonut *
Most phonemes: Khmer (spoken in Cambodia)
Fewest phonemes: Rotokas (a language spoken in Papua New Guinea)

I thought Hawaiian had the fewest with 13. Anyone know how many Rotokas has? **

I did a little research. Rotokas has 6 consonant phonemes and 5 vowel phonemes, making just 11 phonemes.

[bibliophage]

How many phonemes does Khmer have? !Kung is supposed to have 96 consonant phonemes, and I don’t know how many vowel phonemes.

[matt_mcl]

*Originally posted by JellyDonut *
For instance, one can express the phrase “I am at John’s house” in 3 syllables “Chu chez Jean” compared with, say Spanish “Yo estoy en la casa de Juan” which has 9 (although most Spanish speakers will omit the initial “yo”). It is because of this efficiency that I like to speak Québécois. **

I like it too. The other day I realized the following:

Qu’est-ce qu’il y a? (What’s the matter?) = /kEskij@/

/k/ = que
/E/ = est
/s/ = ce
/k/ = que
/i/ = il
/j/ = y
/@/ = a

One phoneme per morpheme. Seven morphemes in three syllables. Câlice!

[peepthis]

*Originally posted by dtilque *
**

*Originally posted by JellyDonut *
Most phonemes: Khmer (spoken in Cambodia)
Fewest phonemes: Rotokas (a language spoken in Papua New Guinea)

I thought Hawaiian had the fewest with 13. Anyone know how many Rotokas has? **

I think you’re thinking of number of letters in the Hawaiian alphabet.(?)

[psychonaut]

*Originally posted by JellyDonut *
Québécois is notorious for being a very rapidly spoken language. It is because of this efficiency that I like to speak Québécois. **

I am highly skeptical of this alleged efficiency. Though I don’t have a cite at the moment, I distinctly recall from my undergrad linguistics classes that spoken language conveys, on average, a certain number of ideas per second. The difference between the averages for any two languages is negligible – that is, there is very little deviation from a universal mean. Thus, while you may slur out “Chu chez Jean” in time t, a native Spanish speaker will fire off his corresponding nine-syllable monstrosity in time t plus or minus epsilon. It may seem rapidly-spoken to us, but for the Spanish speaker it is his normal pace.