diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 1c487cb0..45d2f250 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -10,6 +10,8 @@ The espeak-ng project is a fork of the espeak project.
 ### 1.49.2 - (In Development)
 
 *  Support describing all IPA phonemes in the phoneme tables.
+*  Removed support for phoneme equivalence tables. These were disabled in the
+   French and German language files.
 
 updated languages:
 
diff --git a/src/libespeak-ng/compiledata.c b/src/libespeak-ng/compiledata.c
index c4f85640..fb666aa7 100644
--- a/src/libespeak-ng/compiledata.c
+++ b/src/libespeak-ng/compiledata.c
@@ -2328,7 +2328,6 @@ static void WritePhonemeTables()
 		fputc(phoneme_tab_list2[ix].includes, f_phtab);
 		fputc(0, f_phtab);
 		fputc(0, f_phtab);
-		Write4Bytes(f_phtab, phoneme_tab_list2[ix].equivalence_tables); // byte index into phondata for equivalence tables
 
 		fwrite(phoneme_tab_list2[ix].name, 1, N_PHONEME_TAB_NAME, f_phtab);
 
diff --git a/src/libespeak-ng/phoneme.h b/src/libespeak-ng/phoneme.h
index cef848f7..7e263e4a 100644
--- a/src/libespeak-ng/phoneme.h
+++ b/src/libespeak-ng/phoneme.h
@@ -223,7 +223,6 @@ typedef struct {
 	PHONEME_TAB *phoneme_tab_ptr;
 	int n_phonemes;
 	int includes;            // also include the phonemes from this other phoneme table
-	int equivalence_tables;   // lists of equivalent phonemes to match other languages, byte index into phondata
 } PHONEME_TAB_LIST;
 
 // table of phonemes to be replaced with different phonemes, for the current voice
diff --git a/src/libespeak-ng/synthdata.c b/src/libespeak-ng/synthdata.c
index 0be5d854..b3e17d4e 100644
--- a/src/libespeak-ng/synthdata.c
+++ b/src/libespeak-ng/synthdata.c
@@ -144,9 +144,7 @@ espeak_ng_STATUS LoadPhData(int *srate, espeak_ng_ERROR_CONTEXT *context)
 		n_phonemes = p[0];
 		phoneme_tab_list[ix].n_phonemes = p[0];
 		phoneme_tab_list[ix].includes = p[1];
-		pw = (int *)p;
-		phoneme_tab_list[ix].equivalence_tables = Reverse4Bytes(pw[1]);
-		p += 8;
+		p += 4;
 		memcpy(phoneme_tab_list[ix].name, p, N_PHONEME_TAB_NAME);
 		p += N_PHONEME_TAB_NAME;
 		phoneme_tab_list[ix].phoneme_tab_ptr = (PHONEME_TAB *)p;
diff --git a/src/libespeak-ng/translate.c b/src/libespeak-ng/translate.c
index 51c0ee15..59084ad9 100644
--- a/src/libespeak-ng/translate.c
+++ b/src/libespeak-ng/translate.c
@@ -698,85 +698,6 @@ static int CheckDottedAbbrev(char *word1)
 
 extern char *phondata_ptr;
 
-int ChangeEquivalentPhonemes(Translator *tr, int lang2, char *phonemes)
-{
-	// tr:  the original language
-	// lang2:  phoneme table number for the temporary language
-	// phonemes: the phonemes to be replaced
-
-	int ix;
-	int len;
-	char phon;
-	char *p;
-	unsigned char *pb;
-	char *eqlist;
-	char *p_out;
-	char *p_in;
-	int remove_stress = 0;
-	char phonbuf[N_WORD_PHONEMES];
-
-	// has a phoneme equivalence table been specified for this language pair?
-	if ((ix = phoneme_tab_list[tr->phoneme_tab_ix].equivalence_tables) == 0)
-		return 0;
-
-	pb = (unsigned char *)&phondata_ptr[ix];
-
-	for (;;) {
-		if (pb[0] == 0)
-			return 0; // table not found
-
-		if (pb[0] == lang2)
-			break;
-
-		len = (pb[2] << 8) + pb[3]; // size of this table in words
-		pb += (len * 4);
-	}
-	remove_stress = pb[1];
-
-	if (option_phonemes & espeakPHONEMES_TRACE) {
-		DecodePhonemes(phonemes, phonbuf);
-		fprintf(f_trans, "(%s) %s  -> (%s) ", phoneme_tab_list[lang2].name, phonbuf, phoneme_tab_list[tr->phoneme_tab_ix].name);
-	}
-
-	p_in = phonemes;
-	eqlist = (char *)&pb[8];
-	p_out = phonbuf;
-
-	while ((phon = *p_in++) != 0) {
-		if (remove_stress && ((phon & 0xff) < phonSTRESS_PREV))
-			continue; // remove stress marks
-
-		// is there a translation for this phoneme code?
-		p = eqlist;
-		while (*p != 0) {
-			len = strlen(&p[1]);
-			if (*p == phon) {
-				strcpy(p_out, &p[1]);
-				p_out += len;
-				break;
-			}
-			p += (len + 2);
-		}
-		if (*p == 0) {
-			// no translation found
-			*p_out++ = phon;
-		}
-	}
-	*p_out = 0;
-
-	if (remove_stress)
-		SetWordStress(tr, phonbuf, NULL, -1, 0);
-
-	strcpy(phonemes, phonbuf);
-
-	if (option_phonemes & espeakPHONEMES_TRACE) {
-		SelectPhonemeTable(tr->phoneme_tab_ix);
-		DecodePhonemes(phonemes, phonbuf);
-		fprintf(f_trans, "%s\n\n", phonbuf);
-	}
-	return 1;
-}
-
 int TranslateWord(Translator *tr, char *word_start, WORD_TAB *wtab, char *word_out)
 {
 	// word1 is terminated by space (0x20) character
@@ -1746,11 +1667,6 @@ static int TranslateWord2(Translator *tr, char *word, WORD_TAB *wtab, int pre_pa
 				p[2] = 0;
 			}
 
-			if (ChangeEquivalentPhonemes(tr, switch_phonemes, (char *)p)) {
-				// Phonemes have been converted from the foreign language to the native language
-				switch_phonemes = -1;
-			}
-
 			if (switch_phonemes == -1) {
 				strcpy(dictionary_name, old_dictionary_name);
 				SelectPhonemeTable(voice->phoneme_tab_ix);