Minimal Pair List Vowels 9 and 20, /u/ versus / ʊə / 19 pairs
The /u/ vowel is spelled <oo>, <ue> and <o> in
two
. The /
ʊə
/ diphthong is spelled <our> or <ure>.
This is a contrast between a long vowel and a diphthong with similar starting positions. It is a known problem for Farsi and Swahili learners and probably for others, even some native speakers. Luckily there are few minimal pairs and so it does not matter very much.
The density figure is 1.8%. The set makes 10 semantic contrasts giving a loading of 52.6%.
allude allured
boon bourn
boons bourns
boo boor
boos boors
cue cure
cues cures
endue endure
endued endured
endues endures
moo moor
mood moored
moos moors
queue cure
queued cured
queues cures
too tour
two tour
twos tours
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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.
