Minimal Pair List Vowels 12 and 20, /ə/ versus /ʊə/ 4 pairs

The dictionary did not list any pairs for this contrast, but there is no absolute reason for this. Some speakers might make the pair Asia/azure into a minimal pair, although most people will pronounce them identically. The German name Dieter , which was not in the dictionary, contrasts with detour which unusually uses the / ʊə / diphthong in an unstressed position. Recently there has come into being an insurance company called e-sure , and this makes a minimal pair with the place name Esher . Buster and bus-tour , which were not in the dictionary, are different in stress so are not truly minimal. (My thanks to Muriel Higgins for coming up with these suggestions.)

Asia azure	   
Dieter detour
Esher e-sure	 
Buster bus-tour.

John Higgins

John Higgins retired in 2000, having spent the bulk of his career as a British Council English Language Officer working in Thailand, Turkey, Egypt and Yugoslavia and the last fifteen years in lectureships at Bristol University and then running an M.Sc. programme at Stirling University. His main field was EFL, with a special interest in CALL (computer-assisted language learning) in which, together with Tim Johns of Birmingham, he was responsible for important developments in methods and materials. His publications include A Guide to Language Laboratory Material Writing, Universitetesforlaget, 1969, Computers and Language Learning, Collins, 1984, Language Learners and Computers, Longman, 1988, and Computers in English Language Learning, Intellect Press, 1992, together with numerous papers, reviews and pieces of software. He maintains a web page on minimal pairs and homographs for teachers of English pronunciation skills.