- Minimal pair
-
In phonology, minimal pairs are pairs of words or phrases in a particular language, which differ in only one phonological element, such as a phone, phoneme, toneme or chroneme and have distinct meanings. They are used to demonstrate that two phones constitute two separate phonemes in the language.
As an example for English vowels, the pair "let" + "lit" can be used to demonstrate that the phones [ɛ] (in let) and [ɪ] (in lit) do in fact represent distinct phonemes /ɛ/ and /ɪ/. An example for English consonants is the minimal pair of "pat" + "bat". In phonetics, this pair, like any other, differs in a number of ways. In this case, the contrast appears largely to be conveyed with a difference in the voice onset time of the initial consonant as the configuration of the mouth is the same for [p] and [b]; however, there is also a possible difference in duration, which visual analysis using high quality video supports.[citation needed]
Phonemic differentiation may vary between different dialects of a language, so that a particular minimal pair in one accent is a pair of homophones in another. This does not necessarily mean that one of the phonemes is absent in the homonym accent; merely that it is not present in the same range of contexts.
Contents
Examples
Differentiations in English
Following pairs prove existence of various distinct phonemes in English.
word 1 word 2 IPA 1 IPA 2 note pin bin /pɪn/ /bɪn/ initial consonant rot lot /rɒt/ /lɒt/ zeal seal /ziːl/ /siːl/ bin bean /bɪn/ /biːn/ vowel pen pan /pɛn/ /pæn/ hat had /hæt/ /hæd/ final consonant Differentiating consonants with same location and manner of articulation
In the articulation of bilabial plosives, 4 phones are defined by the characteristics voiced/unvoiced and aspirated/unaspirated: [p], [pʰ], [b] and [bʱ]. In different languages only some of these may occur and the number of phonemes formed may be different again.
Pattern Language(s) Explanation 
English Phones [p] as in "spin" and [pʰ] as in "pin" both occur, but are allophones of the phoneme /p/ and no minimal pair can be found to distinguish them, but the word "bin" shows that the phone [b] forms a phoneme /b/ separate from /p/. 
Mandarin Only phones (and phonemes) [p] and [pʰ] occur. In the Pinyin transcription /pʰ/ is written "p" and /p/ is written "b" (using the two available Latin letters for the two phonemes). 
French/Portuguese In Romance languages and other European languages only phones (and phonemes) [p] and [b] occur. 
Hindi/Urdu All four phones are separate phonemes. 
Thai Three phones occur and form three phonemes, as in these examples: - ใบ /baɪ/ "sheet"
- ไป /paɪ/ "to go"
- ภัย /pʰaɪ/ "danger"
Differentiating vowels
The following table shows a minimal set in French distinguishing vowels, some or all of which may sound alike to an Anglophone, because the [œ] and [y] sounds do not exist in English:
word IPA meaning cire /siʁ/ wax sûre /syʁ/ sure sœur /sœʁ/ sister sieur /sjœʁ/ sir sueur /sɥœʁ/ sweat Differentiating consonants
A minimal triplet of consonants in French is:
word IPA meaning bête noire /bɛtnwaʁ/ black beast, pet peeve baie noire /bɛnwaʁ/ black bay baignoire /bɛɲwaʁ/ bathtub Because [tn] is not a single phoneme in French, this shows a minimal pair between the presence and absence of [t] next to [n], which shares its point of articulation. [n] and [ɲ] differ only in point of articulation.
There are three verbs in Hebrew which demonstrate the distinction, in some dialects, between a velar stop and an uvular stop on one hand, and a glottal stop with and without tightening of the throat on the other:
word IPA meaning קרא /qɔːrɔːʔ/ read, call קרע /qɔːraʕ/ tear apart כרע /kɔːraʕ/ kneel In the following two Hebrew verbs, the only distinction is a glottal stop in the middle of the first word:
word IPA meaning לראות /liːrʔoːθ/ see לירות /liːroːθ/ shoot In Korean, phones [ɾ] in "Korea" and [l] in "Seoul" are allophones of one phoneme and are perceived by native speakers of Korean as a single phoneme. The difference is that [ɾ] is the allophone of this phoneme before vowels and [l] is the allophone in the other contexts.
Differentiating chronemes
Hungarian, Italian and Polish[citation needed]; have distinctive length of consonants, as did Latin. A differentiator for length may be called a chroneme. In the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), lengthening can be indicated by doubling the symbol, or by the special sign /ː/. Doubling is commonly used for consonants, while the special symbol is used for vowels. E.g. in Italian:
word IPA meaning pala /ˈpala/ shovel palla /ˈpalla/ ball Hungarian, German and Thai have distinctive vowel length, as did Latin. E.g. in Thai (and compare this example also to the one on tone):
word IPA RTGS quality meaning เขา /kʰǎw/ khǎo short, rising tone he/she ขาว /kʰǎːw/ khǎo long, rising tone white เข้า /kʰâw/ khâo short, falling tone enter ข้าว /kʰâːw/ khâo long, falling tone rice เข่า /kʰàw/ khào short, low tone knee ข่าว /kʰàːw/ khào long, low tone news Differentiating tonemes
Languages such as Mandarin Chinese, Thai, Yoruba and Igbo (See: pitch accent and tonal language.) For example in Thai:
word IPA RTGS quality meaning ขาว /kʰǎːw/ khǎ:o rising tone white ข้าว /kʰâːw/ khâ:o falling tone rice ข่าว /kʰàːw/ khà:o low tone news Differentiating stress
Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian and Greek have many minimal pairs differing only in stress; Dutch has several (stress indicated by acute accent). E.g.:
language word IPA meaning Dutch voorkómen /voːrˈkoːmə(n)/ prevent Dutch vóórkomen /ˈvoːrkoːmə(n)/ occur Spanish límite /ˈlimite/ (the) limit Spanish limite /liˈmite/ he/she limits, you (formal) limit Spanish limité /limiˈte/ I limited Portuguese duvida /du'vidɐ/ (he) doubts Portuguese dúvida /ˈduvidɐ/ (a) doubt Italian ancora /ˈankora/ anchor Italian ancora /anˈkora/ still, yet Romanian copii /koˈpi/ children Romanian copii /ˈkopi/ copies Greek ποτέ /pɔˈtɛ/ never Greek πότε /ˈpɔtɛ/ when Minimal pairs may differ superficially in more than one place if one feature is dependent on the other. For example, English record (noun) and record (verb) (and similar pairs) appear superficially not to be minimal pairs for stress because they differ in vowel quality as well. However, since the differences in vowel quality are predictable consequences of the differences in stress, such pairs are considered minimal pairs. The case is similar in Russian, e.g. мука ('torture, pain') and мука ('flour').
External links
- Software that generates a list of minimal pairs from a wordlist
- Consonant Contrasts Australian English (non-rhotic) Minimal Pair Words and Pictures from Caroline Bowen. Most of these will "work" in other dialects of English.
- Vowel and Diphthong Contrasts: Australian English (non-rhotic) Minimal Pair Words and Pictures from Caroline Bowen. Most of these will "work" in other dialects of English.
- Picturable Minimal Pairs ... ... and other word lists (without pictures) in English from Caroline Bowen.
- Phonological Therapy Speech-Language Pathologists' intervention "tricks" and techniques involving minimal pairs – Words and Pictures from Caroline Bowen
- Freebies Index Many words and pictures: singleton consonant lists, revisions and repairs, minimal pairs, etc from Caroline Bowen
- Complete list of minimal pairs in English RP created by John Higgins.
Categories:
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
