In learning Lao one of the tricky things For a native English speaker is the two vowels that we don't have in English and sound very similar to us. This is compounded by the fact that both exist in short and long forms.
So I'm actually looking for a minimal "quartet" ideally, and because Lao has five or six tones it's important that only the vowels contrast and not the tones, which will distract my ear and my attempts at pronunciation.
The vowel sounds in question:
/ɯ/Lao orthographyກຶLatin transliterationuorue/ɯː/Lao orthographyກືLatin transliterationuorue/ɤ/Lao orthographyເກິLatin transliterationeuoroe/ɤː/Lao orthographyເກີLatin transliterationeuoroe
(I've arbitrarily used ກ as the base consonant. Vowel length is unfortuately not reflected in the common transliteration schemes.)
I realize it's not always possible to find perfect minimal pairs and that's going to be even harder with four contrasting sounds rather than two, so "near minimal pairs" are acceptable. I'd prefer short common words that I'll be able use.
(There are also diphthongs with each vowel followed by schwa: /ɯə/, /ɯːə/, /uə/, and /uːə/ so bonus points if you can include those!)
ɯis pretty much like the vowel in Irish Englishthis, whileɤis close to Australian Englishəas inbird. – bytebuster Oct 11 '13 at 7:27/ɜː/but in narrow IPA I've seen all kinds of stuff. In American English the vowel could be a schwa, but a rhotacised one. Lao even has a schwa that contrasts withɤbut I think it's only used in diphthongs. – hippietrail Oct 11 '13 at 7:35