Here's a breakdown:
* English: has around 44 phonemes, including vowels, consonants, and diphthongs.
* Other languages: can have significantly more or fewer phonemes than English. For instance, Mandarin Chinese has around 37 phonemes, while some languages in Africa have over 100 phonemes.
Factors influencing phoneme count:
* Phonetic inventory: The specific sounds a language utilizes.
* Distinctive features: How sounds are categorized based on characteristics like place and manner of articulation.
* Allophonic variation: Differences in pronunciation of the same phoneme in various contexts.
Overall: There's no definitive answer to how many phonemes are in human speech. It's a complex issue dependent on the specific language being considered.