Languages With the Most Sounds
Languages have different phonetic inventories. Some languages use more sounds than others. Two sounds are considered different if native speakers perceive them as two distinct phonemes.
Below is a ranking of the most common languages ordered by the number of sounds (phonemes) they use. Diphthongs are not included because they are combinations of vowels.
Lithuanian: 12 vowels and 47 consonants = 59 sounds
Danish: 32 vowels and 20 consonants = 52 sounds
Hindustani: 11 vowels and 37 consonants = 48 sounds
Welsh: 14 vowels and 31 consonants = 45 sounds
German: 20 vowels and 25 consonants = 45 sounds
Belarusian: 6 vowels and 39 consonants = 45 sounds
Norwegian: 19 vowels and 25 consonants = 44 sounds
Irish: 11 vowels and 33 consonants = 44 sounds
Bulgarian: 8 vowels and 36 consonants = 44 sounds
Hungarian: 14 vowels and 27 consonants = 41 sounds
Ukrainian: 6 vowels and 34 consonants = 40 sounds
Russian: 6 vowels and 34 consonants = 40 sounds
Slovak: 10 vowels and 29 consonants = 39 sounds
Latvian: 12 vowels and 27 consonants = 39 sounds
French: 17 vowels and 22 consonants = 39 sounds
Estonian: 9 vowels and 30 consonants = 39 sounds
Dutch: 16 vowels and 23 consonants = 39 sounds
Icelandic: 16 vowels and 22 consonants = 38 sounds
Portuguese: 14 vowels and 23 consonants = 37 sounds
Polish: 6 vowels and 31 consonants = 37 sounds
Czech: 10 vowels and 27 consonants = 37 sounds
Albanian: 7 vowels and 30 consonants = 37 sounds
English: 12 vowels and 24 consonants = 36 sounds
Catalan: 8 vowels and 28 consonants = 36 sounds
Swedish: 17 vowels and 18 consonants = 35 sounds
Mandarin: 9 vowels and 26 consonants = 35 sounds
Finnish: 16 vowels and 18 consonants = 34 sounds
Arabic: 6 vowels and 28 consonants = 34 sounds
Hausa: 10 vowels and 24 consonants = 34 sounds
Esperanto: 5 vowels and 27 consonants = 32 sounds
Persian: 6 vowels and 26 consonants = 32 sounds
Turkish: 8 vowels and 23 consonants = 31 sounds
Serbo-Croatian: 5 vowels and 25 consonants = 30 sounds
Italian: 7 vowels and 23 consonants = 30 sounds
Basque: 6 vowels and consonants = 30 sounds
Romanian: 7 vowels and 22 consonants = 29 sounds
Galician: 7 vowels and 19 consonants = 26 sounds
Spanish: 5 vowels and 20 consonants = 25 sounds
Greek: 5 vowels and 18 consonants = 23 sounds
Japanese: 5 vowels and 17 consonants = 22 sounds
This is by no means a complete list, but my source only had information for these languages.
