Minimal Pair List Vowels 9 and 12, /u/ versus /ə/ 15 pairs
Since the schwa has to be unstressed while /u/ is likely to be prominent, very few pairs were found in the dictionary. I have included several involving the
weak forms
but
,
cos
,
from
,
to
,
was
and
you
which are of doubtful status since they cannot occur in isolation.
The density figure is 0.32%. The set makes 11 semantic contrasts for a loading of 73%.
babu barber
babus barbers
bayou buyer
bayous buyers
boot but
coos cos
cuckoo cooker
cuckoos cookers
Frome from
seafood Seaford
two to
too to
whom h'm
woos was
yew you
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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.
