In
phonologyPhonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...
, minimal pairs are pairs of
wordIn language, a word is the smallest free form that may be uttered in isolation with semantic or pragmatic content . This contrasts with a morpheme, which is the smallest unit of meaning but will not necessarily stand on its own...
s or phrases in a particular
languageLanguage may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
, which differ in only one phonological element, such as a phone,
phonemeIn a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
, toneme or
chronemeIn linguistics, a chroneme is a basic, theoretical unit of sound that can distinguish words by duration only of a vowel or consonant. The noun chroneme is derived from Greek χρονος , and the suffixed -eme, which is analogous to the -eme in phoneme...
and have distinct meanings. They are used to demonstrate that two phones constitute two separate phonemes in the language.
As an example for
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
vowelIn phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
s, 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 timeIn phonetics, voice onset time, commonly abbreviated VOT, is a feature of the production of stop consonants. It is defined as the length of time that passes between when a stop consonant is released and when voicing, the vibration of the vocal folds, or, according to the authors, periodicity begins...
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.
Phonemic differentiation may vary between different
dialectThe term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
s of a language, so that a particular minimal pair in one
accentIn linguistics, an accent is a manner of pronunciation peculiar to a particular individual, location, or nation.An accent may identify the locality in which its speakers reside , the socio-economic status of its speakers, their ethnicity, their caste or social class, their first language In...
is a pair of
homophoneA homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning. The words may be spelled the same, such as rose and rose , or differently, such as carat, caret, and carrot, or to, two, and too. Homophones that are spelled the same are also both homographs and homonyms...
s 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.
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 plosiveIn phonetics and phonology, a bilabial stop is a type of consonantal sound, made with both lips , held tightly enough to block the passage of air . The most common sounds are the plosives and , as in English pit and bit...
s, 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 English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
|
Phones [p] as in "spin" and [pʰ] as in "pin" both occur, but are allophone In phonology, an allophone is one of a set of multiple possible spoken sounds used to pronounce a single phoneme. For example, and are allophones for the phoneme in the English language...
s 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). |
| |
FrenchFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
/PortuguesePortuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
|
In Romance languages and other European languages only phones (and phonemes) [p] and [b] occur. |
| |
Hindi/Urdu |
All four phones are separate phonemes. |
| |
ThaiThai , also known as Central Thai and Siamese, is the national and official language of Thailand and the native language of the Thai people, Thailand's dominant ethnic group. Thai is a member of the Tai group of the Tai–Kadai language family. Historical linguists have been unable to definitively...
|
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
HebrewHebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
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
KoreanKorean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...
, 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
HungarianHungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
,
ItalianItalian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
and
PolishPolish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
; have distinctive
length of consonantIn phonetics, gemination happens when a spoken consonant is pronounced for an audibly longer period of time than a short consonant. Gemination is distinct from stress and may appear independently of it....
s, as did
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
. A differentiator for length may be called a
chronemeIn linguistics, a chroneme is a basic, theoretical unit of sound that can distinguish words by duration only of a vowel or consonant. The noun chroneme is derived from Greek χρονος , and the suffixed -eme, which is analogous to the -eme in phoneme...
. 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 |
HungarianHungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
,
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
and
ThaiThai , also known as Central Thai and Siamese, is the national and official language of Thailand and the native language of the Thai people, Thailand's dominant ethnic group. Thai is a member of the Tai group of the Tai–Kadai language family. Historical linguists have been unable to definitively...
have distinctive
vowel lengthIn linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. Often the chroneme, or the "longness", acts like a consonant, and may etymologically be one, such as in Australian English. While not distinctive in most dialects of English, vowel length is an important phonemic factor in...
, as did
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
. 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,
ThaiThai , also known as Central Thai and Siamese, is the national and official language of Thailand and the native language of the Thai people, Thailand's dominant ethnic group. Thai is a member of the Tai group of the Tai–Kadai language family. Historical linguists have been unable to definitively...
,
YorubaYorùbá is a Niger–Congo language spoken in West Africa by approximately 20 million speakers. The native tongue of the Yoruba people, it is spoken, among other languages, in Nigeria, Benin, and Togo and in communities in other parts of Africa, Europe and the Americas...
and
IgboIgbo , or Igbo proper, is a native language of the Igbo people, an ethnic group primarily located in southeastern Nigeria. There are approximately 20 million speakers that are mostly in Nigeria and are primarily of Igbo descent. Igbo is a national language of Nigeria. It is written in the Latin...
(See:
pitch accentPitch accent is a linguistic term of convenience for a variety of restricted tone systems that use variations in pitch to give prominence to a syllable or mora within a word. The placement of this tone or the way it is realized can give different meanings to otherwise similar words...
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
SpanishSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
,
PortuguesePortuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
,
ItalianItalian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
,
RomanianRomanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
and
GreekGreek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
have many minimal pairs differing only in stress;
DutchDutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
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
RussianRussian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
, e.g. мука ('torture, pain') and мука ('flour').
External links