Minimal Pair List Consonants /Ɵ/ versus /j/, 12 pairs
The /Ɵ/ sound is spelled with <th>. The /j/ sound is spelled with <y>.
This is a contrast between a voiceless dental and alveolar fricative and a voiced palatal semivowel, fairly close together in the mouth. It is not a problem.
Since the /Ɵ/ sound is of low frequency overall, the mean density value is low at 0.5%. The list makes 4 semantic distinctions, a loading of 33%.
thank yank
thanked yanked
thanking yanking
thanks yanks
thaw yaw
thawed yawed
thawing yawing
thaws yaws
thaw your
thaws yours
thorn yawn
thorns yawns
.
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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.
