Minimal Pair List Consonants /Ɵ/ versus /ʤ/, 41 pairs

The /Ɵ/ sound is spelled with <th>. The /ʤ/ sound is spelled with <j> or <ge>.

This is a contrast between a voiceless fricative and a voiced affricate, close together in the mouth. It is not a problem.

The mean density value is 1.5%. The list makes 24 semantic distinctions, a loading of 59%.

 	
bath barge 
  bathing barging 
Cath cadge
dearth dirge
earth urge
  earthing urging
  earthed urged
forth forge 
fourth forge
lath large 
mirth merge 
myth midge 
nothing nudging
Perth purge
saith sedge
thane Jane 
thaw jaw 
  thawed jawed 
  thawing jawing 
  thaws jaws 
theology geology 
  theological geological 
  theologically geologically 
therm germ 
  therms germs 
thimbles gimbals 
thin gin
  thins gins
  thinned ginned 
  thinning ginning 
thin jinn 	
  thins jinns
think jink
thinks jinks 
thug jug 
  thugs jugs 
thump jump 
  thumped jumped 
  thumping jumping 
  thumps jumps 
wraith rage 

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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.