Being deeply involved in sounds of English lanaguge & its
phonetics, I wonder if people around could enlighten me bit further by
answering the following questions ???
Firstly, I wish to know as EXACTLY, how many sounds are there in
English ??? Do we count "diphthongs" as individual sounds OR not since
it's merely a mixture of "short" & "long" vowels ???
If not counting "Diphthongs" as individual sounds then English would
have around 24 consonant sounds & 7 (short vowel) + 5 (long vowel)
= 12 vowel sounds, bringing the total to around 24 + 11 = 35 sounds.
(Have a look here: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/help/phonetics.htm)
Secondly, any idea about the sounds within American English, IF there's more/less sounds in there ???
Any idea, as how many sounds are there in other languages, as few
widely spoken languages by millions around the world such as French,
German, Spanish, Portutues, Italian, Hindi, Gujarati, etc. ???
Lastly, which language has the MOST sounds within it (such as British
English has around 47 different sounds) & which language has the
LEAST sounds within it ???
Any help would be greatly appreciated.