Minimal Pair List Consonants /ʒ/ versus /m/, 10 pairs
The /ʒ/ sound is spelled with <ge> in words of French origin or <su> in
measure
and
treasure
. The /m/ sound is spelled with <m>.
This is a contrast between a voiceless fricative and a voiced affricate, widely separated in the mouth. It is not a problem.
Since there is a huge discrepancy between the common /m/ sound and the rare /ʒ/, the mean density value is very low at 0.1%. The lists make 6 semantic distinctions, a loading of 60%.
Bruges broom
luge loom
measurable memorable
measurably memorably
rouge rheum
rouge room
rouged roomed
rouging rooming
treasure tremor
treasures tremors
.
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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.
