Minimal Pair List Consonants /t/ versus /ʒ/, 9 pairs
The spelling of /t/ is <t> or <tt> in this set. The /ʒ/ sound is spelled <ge>, <zu> or <su>.
The contrast is between a voiceless stop and a voiced fricative, fairly close in the mouth. It is unlikely to be a problem.
The consonant /t/ can occur in any position in the syllable, but /ʒ/ only occurs finally or intervocalically, other than in foreign names or loan words such as gendarme . /ʒ/ is in any case a very rare phoneme, found in only 334 words in the source dictionary.
The figure for the mean density of this contrast is 0.1%. The set makes 7 semantic contrasts, a loading of 77%.
attar azure bait beige bruit Bruges brute Bruges letter leisure lettered leisured loot luge root rouge rooting rouging
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