Minimal Pair List Consonants /ʃ/ versus /ʒ/, 10 pairs
The /ʃ/ sound is spelled with <sh>, <ti>, <ci> or <che>. The /ʒ/ sound is spelled with <si>, <su>, <zu> or <ge>.
This is a contrast between two alveolar fricatives, distinguished only by voicing. Even native speakers may have a problem, but the contrast is so rare that it hardly matters.
The mean density value is very low at 0.2%. The list makes 6 semantic distinctions, a loading of 60%.
Aleutian allusion
Aleutians allusions
Asher azure
Confucian confusion
Confucians confusions
dilution delusion
dilutions delusions
mesher measure
meshers measures
ruche rouge
(With thanks to Petr Rösel of Mainz.)
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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.
