Minimal Pairs Essay

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MINIMAL PAIRS Introduction: Language is primarily used by all human beings to communicate ideas, thoughts and feelings. For the proper communication of ideas a set of sound units are needed these sound units when combine in a systematic way forms speech sounds. The whole study of language and communication is now a scientific branch called as Linguistics. Linguistics can be defined as the systematic study of languages. It studies the origin, development, and the features of languages all around the world. As said, speech sounds are made up of minimal distinctive sound units, these are called as ‘Phonemes’. By minimal we mean that it cannot be sub-divided; by distinctive we mean that, when one phoneme is substituted by another, it produces a meaning change. Thus phoneme is the smallest unit of sound that forms the basis of distinction between words in a language. Phonemes in particular languages can be identified by discovering Minimal Pairs. Minimal Pairs help in distinguishing one phoneme from another and thus make it easier for the listing and differentiation of the various phonemes of a language. MINIMAL PAIRS: DEFINITION: The phonological system of a language can be determined by establishing the phonemes of that language. This can be done by discovering and collecting Minimal Pairs, pairs of words which differ from each other only in one sound segment. ‘Beat’ and ‘seat’ constitute a minimal pair in English as they differ from each other in the initial consonant sounds. ‘Bat’ and ‘beat’ constitute a minimal pair as they differ from each other in the medial vowel sound. ‘Safe’ and ‘save’ constitute another minimal pair with a difference in their final sounds. Minimal Pairs are often used in listening tests and pronunciation exercises.
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