Minimal Pair List Vowels 10 and 18, /ʌ/ versus / ɪə / 19 pairs
The /ʌ/ vowel is spelled with <u> and <o> in
worry
. The /
ɪə
/ vowel is spelled <ear>, <eer>, or <ier>.
This is a contrast between a short vowel and a diphthong widely separated in the mouth. It does not seem to be a problem for many learners.
The density figure is 0.45%. The set makes 11 semantic contrasts for a loading of 61%.
bud beard
budded bearded
budding bearding
buds beards
buzz beers
does dears
Durham Dereham
fuss fierce
fuzz fears
pus pierce
spud speared
stud steered
unworried unwearied
us ears
worry weary
worried wearied
worries wearies
worrisome wearisome
worrying wearying
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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.
