The LINGUIST List is dedicated to providing information on language and language analysis, and to providing the discipline of linguistics with the infrastructure necessary to function in the digital world. LINGUIST is a free resource, run by linguistics students and faculty, and supported primarily by your donations. Please support LINGUIST List during the 2018 Fund Drive (http://funddrive.linguistlist.org)

What are minimal pairs ?

asked 2015-12-12 10:44:49 -0400

ayayousry
1 ●1 ●1 ●1

updated 2016-01-19 12:23:42 -0400

annawhite
1 ●2

Can anyone tell me what is the meaning of this word?

edit retag flag offensive close merge delete

add a comment

1 answer

Sort by » oldest newest most voted

answered 2015-12-12 10:45:18 -0400

ayayousry
1 ●1 ●1 ●1

Minimal pairs are two words that differ in a single phonological element and have distinct meanings. Tacks/tax and mail/male are pronounced the same, despite having distinct meaning. Thus the tacks/tax and mail/male examples would actually be considered homophones, not minimal pairs, I think.emphasized text

edit flag offensive delete link

add a comment

Question Tools

1 follower

Stats

Asked: 2015-12-12 10:44:49 -0400

Seen: 747 times

Last updated: Jan 19 '16

(C) 2015 by The LINGUIST List and Contributors
Content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.

What are minimal pairs ? edit

1 answer

Question Tools

Stats

What are minimal pairs ?