What language requires its speakers to make the greatest number of sounds?

Whale songs?

You can use the World Atlas of Language Structures to see the languages with the largest consonant and vowel inventories. Assuming that the analyses of these languages are correct.

Those links were interesting, goofy, but were there any languages listed? I saw the maps, but not the languages.

It's a great question, Geoff.

No idea, but I'll guess Chinese anyway.

WM

No idea, but I'll guess Chinese anyway.

Not likely. Mandarin Chinese does not even have as many sounds as English.

From memory, some of the Native American (and/or First Nations) languages of the Pacific Northwest have rather large phonemic inventories. (Hawai`ian has a rather small one (12 phonemes IIRC.) Some of the Kartvelian languages (like Abkhaz) have rather large inventories, too.

arhggh

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quote:

) Some of the Kartvelian languages (like Abkhaz) have rather large inventories, too.

Naturally when you mentioned Kartvelian I thought of this Georgian: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Kartveli

Y'see, Wordmatic, it's not JUST model airplanes!

Ah...thanks, goofy. I was focusing on the maps!

when you mentioned Kartvelian I thought of this Georgian

That is because kartveli means Georgian in Georgian.

quote:

Originally posted by goofy:
Second largest is Apibón in Argentina, and third largest is Abkhaz.

Wait a minute... these lists are arranged alphabetically, not by size of inventory. !Xóõ, Abipón and Abkhaz are just 3 of the 54 languages with the largest consonant inventories.

To answer your question, Geoff: !Xóõ might have the most consonants (over 100), and English is one of the languages with the most vowels. My dialect of English has between 13 and 15 vowels, depending on how you count. Not many languages have more vowels than this. Some analyses say Alsatian German has 21 vowels.

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quote:

Originally posted by zmježd:
when you mentioned Kartvelian I thought of this Georgian

That is because kartveli means Georgian in Georgian.

That's why I posted it! I thought it was interesting that the man's surname referred to his ethnicity even more clearly that "ian" suggests Armenian. And, of course, I had to toss in the aeronautical connection.

quote:

Originally posted by goofy:


To answer your question, Geoff: !Xóõ might have the most consonants (over 100), and English is one of the languages with the most vowels.

OK, thanks! The only "click" consonants I've heard in English are the ones old-time farmers used to command horses. But is that English? I suppose not. Then there are the tongue to the roof of the mouth behind the teeth "tsk-tsk" sounds.

Isn't !Xóõ a very ancient language? I've heard that genetically its speakers are among the most ancient.

quote:

Originally posted by Geoff:

OK, thanks! The only "click" consonants I've heard in English are the ones old-time farmers used to command horses. But is that English? I suppose not. Then there are the tongue to the roof of the mouth behind the teeth "tsk-tsk" sounds.

I while ago I wrote a post on airstream mechanisms with links to audio examples of languages that have click consonants.

quote:

Originally posted by Geoff:
Isn't !Xóõ a very ancient language? I've heard that genetically its speakers are among the most ancient.

All non-creole languages are equally old. They all consist of a continuity of speakers stretching back past recorded history. To put it another way, if !Xóõ is older than English, does that mean English just popped into existence in 960 out of thin air?

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