Minimal Pair List Diphthong /aʊ/ versus null, 41 pairs

The /aʊ/ sound is spelled with <ou>, <ow> or <ao> in Maoist .

As /aʊ/ is usually stressed, it is rare for it to leave another word when you remove it, and in most cases there is a shift of stress. A number of cases arise from replacing an -out suffix with an -ed inflection.

The density is 1.9%. The list makes 32 semantic contrasts, a loading of 78%.

	  
avow of
blackout blacked
blowout bloat
  blowouts bloats
checkout checked
cop-out copped
cowling cling
endows ends
fouling fling
fowling fling
lockout locked
lookout looked
man-hour manner
  man-hours manners
man-hour manor
  man-hours manors
Maoist mist
  Maoists mists
miaou me
miaoued mead
ousting sting
outing ting
  outings tings
outride tried
outrigger trigger
  outriggers triggers
outright trite
outwit twit
  outwitting twitting
  outwits twits
  outwitted twitted
pilau peal
pilau peel
Powys piss
prowess press
rowing ring
sea-cow seek
sea-cow Sikh
way-out wait
way-out weight
work-out worked

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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.