Minimal Pair List Vowels 12 and 19, /ə/ versus / eə / 8 pairs
The schwa is spelled <er> or <or> in this list. The /
eə
/ diphthong is spelled <air>, <are>, and <è> in the loan word
première
.
This is a contrast between a short vowel which is always unstressed and a diphthong. It is not in itself a problem for learners.
The density figure is 0.83%. The set makes 5 semantic contrasts giving a loading of 63%.
coarser corsair
cos cares
courser coursair
coursers corsairs
hector hectare
hectors hectares
premier première
premiers premières
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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.
