Minimal pair
In
represent two separate phonemes in the language.Many phonologists in the middle part of the 20th century had a strong interest in developing techniques for discovering the phonemes of unknown languages, and in some cases, they set up writing systems for the languages. The major work of
As an example for
word 1 | word 2 | IPA 1 | IPA 2 | note |
---|---|---|---|---|
pin | bin | /pɪn/ | /bɪn/ | initial consonant |
rot | lot | /rɒt/ | /lɒt/ | |
thigh | thy | /θaɪ/ | /ðaɪ/ | |
seal | zeal | /siːl/ | /ziːl/ | |
bin | bean | /bɪn/ | /biːn/ | vowel |
pen | pan | /pɛn/ | /pæn/ | |
cook | kook | /kʊk/ | /kuːk/ | |
hat | had | /hæt/ | /hæd/ | final consonant |
mean | meme | /miːn/ | /miːm/ |
Types
In addition to the minimal pairs of vowels and consonants provided above, others may be found:
Quantity
Many languages show contrasts between long and short vowels and consonants. A distinctive difference in length is attributed by some phonologists to a unit called a chroneme. Thus, Italian has the following minimal pair that is based on long and short /l/:
spelling | IPA | meaning |
---|---|---|
pala | /ˈpala/ | shovel |
palla | /ˈpalla/ | ball |
However, in such a case it is not easy to decide whether a long vowel or consonant should be treated as having an added chroneme or simply as a
Classical Latin, German, some Italian dialects, almost all Uralic languages, Thai, and many other languages also have distinctive length in vowels. An example is the cŭ/cū minimal pair in the Italian dialect that is spoken near Palmi (Calabria, Italy)[clarification needed]:
Dialect spoken in Palmi | IPA | Quality | Etymology | Latin | Italian | English |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cŭ voli? | /kuˈvɔːli/ | short | cŭ < lat. qu(is) ("who?") | Quis vult? | Chi vuole? | Who wants? |
Cū voli? | /kuːˈvɔːli/ | long | cū < lat. qu(o) (ill)ŭ(m) ("for-what him?") | Quō illum/illud vult? | Per che cosa lo vuole? | For what (reason) does he want him/it? |
Syntactic gemination
In some languages like Italian, word-initial consonants are
Italian sandhi | IPA | Meaning | Sample sentence | Meaning of the sample sentence |
---|---|---|---|---|
dà casa | /dakˈkaza/ | (he/she) gives (his/her) house | Carlo ci dà casa. | Carlo gives us his house. |
da casa | /daˈkaza/ | from home | Carlo uscì da casa. | Carlo got out from home. |
In the example, the graphical
Tone
Minimal pairs for tone contrasts in
tone | word | meaning |
---|---|---|
high | /kɔ́ɔ́/ | 'to mature' |
low | /kɔ̀ɔ̀/ | 'rice' |
Stress
Languages in which stress may occur in different positions within the word often have contrasts that can be shown in minimal pairs, as in Greek and Spanish:
word | language | IPA | meaning |
---|---|---|---|
ποτέ | Greek | /poˈte/ | ever |
πότε | Greek | /ˈpote/ | when |
esta | Spanish | /ˈesta/ | this (feminine) |
está | Spanish | /esˈta/ | (he/she/it) is |
supot | Tagalog | /ˈsupot/ | bag |
supót | Tagalog | /suˈpot/ | uncircumcized |
In English stress can determine the part of speech of a word: insult as a noun is /ˈɪnsʌlt/ while as a verb it is /ɪnˈsʌlt/. In certain cases it can also differentiate two words: below /bɪˈloʊ/ vs billow /ˈbɪloʊ/.
Juncture
Anglophones can distinguish between, for example, "great ape" and "grey tape", but phonemically, the two phrases are identical: /ɡreɪteɪp/.[6] The difference between the two phrases, which constitute a minimal pair, is said to be one of juncture. At the word boundary, a "plus juncture" /+/ has been posited and said to be the factor conditioning allophones to allow distinctivity:[7] in this example, the phrase "great ape" has an /eɪ/ diphthong shortened by pre-fortis clipping and, since it is not syllable-initial, a /t/ with little aspiration (variously [t˭], [ɾ], [ʔt], [ʔ], etc., depending on dialect); meanwhile in "grey tape", the /eɪ/ has its full length and the /t/ is aspirated [tʰ].
Only languages with allophonic differences associated with grammatical boundaries may have juncture as a phonological element. There is disagreement over whether or not French has phonological juncture: it seems likely that the difference between, for example, "des petits trous" (some little holes) and "des petites roues" (some little wheels), phonemically both /depətitʁu/, is only perceptible in slow, careful speech.[8][9]
Minimal sets
The principle of a simple binary opposition between the two members of a minimal pair may be extended to cover a minimal set in which a number of words differ from one another in terms of one phone in a particular position in the word.[10] For example, the vowels /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/ of Swahili are shown to be distinct by the following set of words: pata 'hinge', peta 'bend', pita 'pass', pota 'twist', puta 'thrash'.[11] However, establishing such sets is not always straightforward [12] and may require very complex study of multiple oppositions as expounded by, for example, Nikolai Trubetzkoy.[13]
Teaching
Minimal pairs were an important part of the theory of pronunciation teaching during its development in the period of
Some writers have claimed that learners are likely not to hear differences between phones if the difference is not a phonemic one.[16][17] One of the objectives of contrastive analysis[18] of languages' sound systems was to identify points of likely difficulty for language learners that would arise from differences in phoneme inventories between the native language and the target language. However, experimental evidence for this claim is hard to find, and the claim should be treated with caution.[19]
In sign languages
In the past, signs were considered holistic forms without internal structure. However, the discovery in the mid-20th century that minimal pairs also exist in sign languages showed that sign languages have sublexical structure.[20] Signs consist of phonemes, which are specifications for location, movement, handshape, orientation, and non-manual elements. When signs differ in only one of these specifications, they form a minimal pair. For instance, the German Sign Language signs shoes and socks are identical in form apart from their handshapes.
See also
References
- .
- ^ Pike, Kenneth (1947). Phonemics.
- JSTOR 409603.
- ISBN 978-0-19-437239-8.
- ^ Manyeh, Morie Komba (1983). Aspects of Kono Phonology (PhD). University of Leeds. p. 152.
- ^ O'Connor, J.D and Tooley, O. (1964) "The perceptibility of certain word-boundaries" in Abercrombie, D. et al In Honour of Daniel Jones, Longman, pp. 171-176
- ^ Trager, G.L.; Smith, H.L. (1957). An Outline of English Structure. American Council of Learned Societies. p. 37.
- JSTOR 44704471
- ^ Passy, P. (1913) Les Sons du Français, Didier, p. 61
- ISBN 9781413006889.
- ^ Ladefoged, P. (2001). Vowels and Consonants. p. 26.
- ^ Fromkin and Rodman (1993). An Introduction to Language. pp. 218–220.
- ^ Trubetzkoy, N. (1969). Principles of Phonology.
- ^ Celce-Murcia; et al. (1996). Teaching Pronunciation. pp. 3–4.
- ^ Brown, Gillian (1990). Listening to Spoken English. pp. 144–6.
- ^ Lado, R. (1961). Language Testing. p. 15.
- ^ Pennington, M. (1996). Phonology in English Language Teaching. p. 24.
- ^ Lado, R. (1957). Linguistics across Cultures.
- ^ Celce-Murcia; et al. (1996). Teaching Pronunciation. pp. 19–20.
- PMID 15585746.
Bibliography
- Brown, G. (1990) Listening to Spoken English, Longman
- Celce-Murcia, M., D. Brinton and J. Goodwin (1996) Teaching Pronunciation, Cambridge University Press
- Fromkin, V. and Rodman, R. (1993) An Introduction to Language, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
- Jones, Daniel (1931) 'ðə "wəːd" əz ə fonetik entiti' ['The "Word" as a phonetic entity'], Le Maître Phonétique, XXXVI, pp. 60–65. JSTOR 44704471
- Jones, Daniel (1944) 'Chronemes and Tonemes', Acta Linguistica, IV, Copenhagen, pp. 1–10.
- Ladefoged, Peter (2001) Vowels and Consonants, Blackwell
- Ladefoged, Peter (2006) A Course in Phonetics, Thomson
- Lado, R. (1957) Linguistics across Cultures, University of Michigan Press
- Lado, R. (1961) Language Testing, Longman
- O'Connor, J.D. (1973) Phonetics, Penguin
- O'Connor, J.D and Tooley, O. (1964) 'The perceptibility of certain word-boundaries', in Abercrombie et al. (eds) In Honour of Daniel Jones, Longman, pp. 171–6.
- Pennington, M. (1996) Phonology in English Language Teaching, Longman
- Pike, Kenneth (1947) Phonemics, University of Michigan Press
- Roach, Peter (2009) English Phonetics and Phonology, Cambridge University Press
- Swadesh, M. (1934) 'The Phonemic Principle', Language vol. 10, pp. 117–29
- Trubetzkoy, N., translated by C. Baltaxe(1969) Principles of Phonology, University of California Press