Minimal Pair List Consonants /ð/ versus /h/, 20 pairs
The /ð/ sound is spelled with <th>. The /h/ sound is spelled with <h>.
This is a contrast between a voiced dental fricative and a voiceless glottal fricative. Although both sounds may occur medially after prefixes, as in
methinks
or
behind
, the only observed pairs occur initially. The separate sounds may be a problem for learners, but the contrast is fairly infrequent.
The mean density value is 0.9%. The list makes 19 semantic distinctions, a loading of 95%.
that hat
thee he
their hair
theirs hairs
their Herr
them hem
then hen
thence hence
there hair
there Herr
they hay
this hiss
thither hither
though ho
though hoe
those hoes
thou how
thy hi
thy hie
thy high
.
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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.
