Minimal Pair List Vowels 2 and 20, / ɪ / and / ʊə / 9 pairs

Vowel / ɪ / is here spelled <i>. The / ʊə / diphthong is <oor>, <our> or <ure>. This dictionary has / bʊən / as the only pronunciation of bourn (meaning stream or boundary). Other dictionaries give that as an alternative to /bɔn/, which would make the word a homophone of born , reducing the number of minimal pairs to 5.

The contrast is not a problem for any known group of learners.

The mean density is insignifcant at 0%. There are 8 semantic distinctions, making for a loading of 86%, or 100% if bourn is excluded.

bin bourn
  bins bourns
biz boors	
krill crewel
krill cruel
lid lured
Liz lures
mid moored
Ms Moors 

July 2014