14
votes
Accepted
Does a difference of tense count as a difference of meaning in a minimal pair?
Yes. A minimal pair is meant to differ in one phoneme, to demonstrate that a speaker of the language can distinguish between the two words, and therefore that the contrast is phonemic. Since the ...
- 2,765
12
votes
Accepted
Which language has the most vowel phonemes?
This is one of those "it depends" questions. Dinka (Bor dialect) has the vowels [i e ɛ ɔ o u a], as well as long and over-long versions of these (21 vowels), and 4 phonatory contrasts (breathy, hollow,...
- 80.3k
11
votes
Can loudness of speech sounds influence meaning?
Intensity is the physical correlate of loudness, and is also a correlate of stress in some languages. Moreover, stress can create differences in meaning in some languages (e.g. PRO-test vs. pro-TEST); ...
- 3,411
9
votes
Why don't minimal pairs like "быть" and "бить" prove that /ɨ/ and /i/ are separate phonemes in Russian?
This is because they are not minimal pairs. They differ in a consonant. The "бить" has soft б while "быть" has hard б.
- 6,516
8
votes
Does any living language contrast /kʷ/ and /kw/?
In theory, yes. Tashlhiyt Berber is said to have a contrast, but that does not mean that there are any minimal pairs. That article points to literature, saying that it is generally agreed that they ...
- 80.3k
7
votes
Can loudness of speech sounds influence meaning?
In Russian the word stress is marked purely by the loudness/force of the syllable (contrary to other Slavic languages where the stress may be also marked by the length or the pitch.) This stress may ...
- 932
6
votes
Accepted
Are there minimal pairs between normal length and long vowels in English?
Australian English has true phonemic length distinctions.
Some examples:
ferry /feɹi/ vs fairy /feːɹi/
Manning (name) /mænɪŋ/ vs manning /mæːnɪŋ/
- 6,106
5
votes
Which languages contrast /ɕ/ and /ʃ/?
As a native Polish speaker I would say that @Klaas Edema statement about Polish language was correct.
Polish speakers consecutively tend to classify [ʃ] in English words as [ʂ]. Moreover, in my ...
- 577
5
votes
Are there any minimal pairs for German lax/tense vowels?
The distinction between long and short vowels is historic, not merely orthographic. It goes back to proto-Germanic and in many cases to proto-Indo-European. As for minimal pairs, they are not rare. ...
- 23.7k
5
votes
Is there good evidence for five vowel phonemes in Hittite?
There is circumstantial evidence from Elamite, where "ú" is /u/, but "u" is /aw/. These readings are very clear from the Elamite representation of Old Persian proper names.
- 23.7k
5
votes
Accepted
Is there any natural language having minimal pairs over tongue root position?
Insofar as you've put creaky and breathy voice in one bin, and a three-way distinction in "ATR" in a second, you have described a situation that doesn't exist in any known language. There ...
- 80.3k
4
votes
Does any living language contrast /kʷ/ and /kw/?
Just because a language contrasts two sounds, doesn't mean there should be minimal pairs (cf. English /h/ and /ŋ/).
The IPA uses a plain w to symbolise the [w] sound (war) and a superscript ʷ for ...
- 1,379
4
votes
Does any living language contrast /kʷ/ and /kw/?
Thai can be what you are looking for.
It has onset clusters /kw/, /kʰw/. Quite often, they are realized as labialized velar consonants /kʷ/, /kʰʷ/.
However¹, final stops like /-k/ are accompanied by a ...
- 8,567
4
votes
Are there minimal pairs between normal length and long vowels in English?
A classic example is that virtually all dialects distinguish [bid] "bid" and [bi:d] "bead". Also, dialects often distinguish [bit] "bit" and [bi:t] "bid". A "minimal pair" is a pair of words whose ...
- 80.3k
4
votes
Are there minimal pairs for "l" vs "ll" in Albanian?
Here a few more:
pulë (chicken) - pullë (button),
plakë (old woman) - pllakë (plate),
plumb (bullet) - pëllumb (dove),
lum (river) - llum (dirt, sludge),
palë (layer) - pallë (sword),
kollë (cough) - ...
- 41
4
votes
Are there minimal pairs for "l" vs "ll" in Albanian?
Djal (boy) and djall (devil) have been the source of some hilarious mix-ups.
- 39
4
votes
Are there minimal pairs between normal length and long vowels in English?
Yes, though it depends on the variety. For example in Scottish English, vowel length does not have minimal pairs since it is determined by "Aitken's law".
In Standard Southern British English (SSBE) ...
- 63
3
votes
Which languages contrast /ɕ/ and /ʃ/?
Sanskrit contrasted three sibilants, two of which most probably were [ɕ] and [ʂ] (or [ʃ]).
The former was an outcome of an Proto-Indo-Iranian affricate that developed from PIE voiceless palatalised ...
- 1,418
3
votes
Accepted
help with minimal pairs in English
Vowels
pap, tat, cack /ɑ ~ æ/
pep, teth, kek /e ~ ɛ/ (Second word very rare, third very informal)
peep, teat, keek /i/ (Is teat too anatomical for your taste?)
pip, tit, kick /ɪ/
pup, tut, cuck /ʌ/
...
- 3,084
3
votes
help with minimal pairs in English
Coke, pope, tote is the only one that completely avoids potential snicker-words.
- 80.3k
3
votes
Are there minimal pairs between normal length and long vowels in English?
Non-rhotic varieties of English have a number of phonemic contrasts in which vowel duration is pretty important. It might be a primary cue to the vowel contrast in some varieties, as exemplified above....
- 41
3
votes
Are there minimal pairs between normal length and long vowels in English?
Assuming minimal pair means contrasting phonetic forms, here is one from my midwestern American dialect: [tʰæ̃j̃k] "tank" versus [tʰæ̃:j̃k] "tannic".
- 12.4k
3
votes
Accepted
Is there good evidence for five vowel phonemes in Hittite?
Kloekhorst's Etymological Dictionary of the Hittite Inherited Lexicon proposes that /o/ and /u/ are separate phonemes in Hittite, but that the distinction doesn't appear in all environments: it's ...
- 62.5k
3
votes
Are there any minimal pairs for German lax/tense vowels?
There are many.
denn/den
Zinn/ziehn
(dem) Sohne/(die) Sonne
As for the word Mond, it's not irregular as you guessed. That syllable is structured just like gehst or klebt:
onset nucleus coda ...
- 4,440
3
votes
What are near-minimal pairs
A minimal pair is two distinct utterances which differ in the presence of exactly one surface phone, for example [væt] and [fæt]. The premise is that you first take note of various words as they are ...
- 80.3k
2
votes
Can loudness of speech sounds influence meaning?
A contested and debated case with different opinions is the case of final obstruent devoicing in many languages; it has been claimed by a lot of research, and contested by others, that in spite of ...
- 320
2
votes
Accepted
Looking for a database of minimal pairs
For future people who may need this, I ended up writing a webscraper and compiling everything from www.minpairs.talktalk.net. You can view/download the corpus here: https://docs.google.com/...
- 1,524
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible