Two words that differ in only one element of their pronunciation
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.
In phonology, minimal pairs are pairs of words or phrases in a particular language, spoken or signed, that differ in only one phonological element, such as a phoneme, toneme or chroneme,[1] and have distinct meanings. They are used to demonstrate that two phones 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 Kenneth Pike on the subject is Phonemics: a technique for reducing languages to writing.[2] The minimal pair was an essential tool in the discovery process and was found by substitution or commutation tests.[3]
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) actually represent distinct phonemes /ɛ/ and /ɪ/. An example for English consonants is the minimal pair of "pat" + "bat". The following table shows other pairs demonstrating the existence of various distinct phonemes in English. All of the possible minimal pairs for any language may be set out in the same way.
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/
Phonemic differentiation may vary between different dialects of a language so a particular minimal pair in one accent may be a pair of homophones in another. That means not that one of the phonemes is absent in the homonym accent but only that it is not contrastive in the same range of contexts.
^Jones, Daniel (January 1944). "Chronemes and tonemes: (a contribution to the study of the theory of phonemes)". Acta Linguistica. 4 (1): 11–10. doi:10.1080/03740463.1944.10410902.
see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. In phonology, minimalpairs are pairs of words or phrases in a particular language, spoken or signed...
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another in that context. A contrastive distribution is demonstrated with a minimalpair. Contrastive distribution is distinct from complementary distribution...
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of a pair of minimally different words, a so-called minimalpair. In English, for example, the words bat [bæt] and pat [pʰæt] form a minimalpair, in which...
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This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For...
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