The Sounds of English

 English has, probably, more sounds than any other language but, how many? And how many existing sounds in world languages doesn´t it  have? It does not posses, as far as I know, the Spanish /t/ sound of "tomate." Or the /d/ sound of "cuidado." It does not have the Castillian-Spanish /j/ of "jamón." This /j/ sound has many variations in Spanish, appearing as 4 or even 6 different sounds. The fricative /g/ of "gordo" is absent in English. 

Simeon Potter says English has forty-four distinct sounds. The International Phonetic Alphabet lists fifty-two. And Bill Bryson, in his "Mother Tongue" says: "... if you listen carefully you will find there are many more than this." 

In my "Phonética Inglesa" (Anaya/Oberón) I list 47, and some sounds escaped my notice. The problem is that every speaker makes her own sounds.