Minimal Pair List Vowels 8 and 15, /ʊ/ versus /ɔɪ/ 3 pairs
Only three pairs emerged from the computer's search. There is no particular reason for there not to be more. It is a contrast between a short vowel and a diphthong with fairly close starting positions but a difference of lip-rounding. I have not heard of it being a problem to any learner.
The density figure is too small to be worth calculating.
bull boil
bulls boils
full foil
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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.
