Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 65 views

    Phonemes and Minimal Pairs

    Uploaded by

    Saood Khan
    This document discusses phonemes and minimal pairs in language. It explains that phonemes are the smallest units of sound that distinguish words in a language, even if the phonemes themselves don't have meaning. Minimal pairs are words that differ by only one phoneme, like "bad" and "bat." The document notes that some phonemes are difficult for speakers of other languages to distinguish, like Japanese speakers with "l" and "r." It provides examples from Russian of how the author confused words with similar phonemes when learning that language. The document emphasizes that even slight pronunciation differences can change a word's meaning, so learners must practice distinguishing phonemes.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Phonemes and Minimal Pairs

    Uploaded by

    Saood Khan
    65 views2 pages
    This document discusses phonemes and minimal pairs in language. It explains that phonemes are the smallest units of sound that distinguish words in a language, even if the phonemes themselves don't have meaning. Minimal pairs are words that differ by only one phoneme, like "bad" and "bat." The document notes that some phonemes are difficult for speakers of other languages to distinguish, like Japanese speakers with "l" and "r." It provides examples from Russian of how the author confused words with similar phonemes when learning that language. The document emphasizes that even slight pronunciation differences can change a word's meaning, so learners must practice distinguishing phonemes.

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    This document discusses phonemes and minimal pairs in language. It explains that phonemes are the smallest units of sound that distinguish words in a language, even if the phonemes themselves don't have meaning. Minimal pairs are words that differ by only one phoneme, like "bad" and "bat." The document notes that some phonemes are difficult for speakers of other languages to distinguish, like Japanese speakers with "l" and "r." It provides examples from Russian of how the author confused words with similar phonemes when learning that language. The document emphasizes that even slight pronunciation differences can change a word's meaning, so learners must practice distinguishing phonemes.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    65 views2 pages

    Phonemes and Minimal Pairs

    Uploaded by

    Saood Khan
    This document discusses phonemes and minimal pairs in language. It explains that phonemes are the smallest units of sound that distinguish words in a language, even if the phonemes themselves don't have meaning. Minimal pairs are words that differ by only one phoneme, like "bad" and "bat." The document notes that some phonemes are difficult for speakers of other languages to distinguish, like Japanese speakers with "l" and "r." It provides examples from Russian of how the author confused words with similar phonemes when learning that language. The document emphasizes that even slight pronunciation differences can change a word's meaning, so learners must practice distinguishing phonemes.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 2

    Phonemes and Minimal Pairs: Why Pronunciation

    Matters.

    Did you know that there are well over 100 different distinct sounds that can be produced by the human vocal
    system? Yet the average language only uses a couple dozen of them. The sounds used in a given language are
    known as phonemes, or the smallest unit of sound used to distinguish between utterances in a language. They do not
    have any meaning themselves, but boy, can they have an impact on the meaning of a word if you put the wrong
    phoneme in the wrong place!
    When two words differ by only one phoneme*, they are called a minimal pair. For example, take the English words
    “bad” and “bat.” Phonetically, they are almost identical, with the only difference being “d” is voiced (you vibrate your
    vocal chords) and “t” is voiceless (you don’t vibrate your vocal chords). Otherwise, they are produced with the same
    tongue positioning in the same part of the mouth.

    Because some of these phonemes are so similar, it can be hard for speakers of one language to distinguish the
    difference between them. That is why a native Japanese speaker has a hard time with “l” and “r” in the English
    language, because physically, they are very similar in how they are produced. The English “r” is a voiced alveolar
    approximant, and “l” is a voiced alveolar lateral approximant (see the IPA chart below. I will give more of an
    explanation of the IPA chart in a later post). [note-they have trouble making the sound because they don’t hear the
    difference because they don’t have the sounds in their language.]
    I ran into a lot of problems with
    minimal pairs when I was learning Russian. For example, they have a difference between “hard” and “soft”
    consonants. I frequently said the word mat, which means “obscene language,” when I wanted to say the word mat’,
    which means mother. The only difference in the pronunciation was a very slight expiration of air after the “t”
    in mat’ that softened the sound and was almost indistinguishable to me.
    Minimal pairs don’t always have to involve similar phonemes. The main thing is that they are almost identical except
    for one phoneme. For example, I also confused the words razvyelis, meaning “they have gotten
    divorced,” and razdyelis, meaning “they have gotten undressed.” This led to some pretty awkward
    conversations! Again, it was only one phoneme that changed everything, though as you can see on the IPA chart
    above, they are at very different places in the mouth (“v” is a voiced labiodental fricative and “d” is a voiced alveolar
    plosive).
    So as you can see, pronunciation matters! Even a slight difference, even one imperceptible to you, can completely
    change the meaning of what you are saying. It takes a lot of practice and listening to tell the difference between some
    phonemes, but the results are worth the effort. My suggestion is to find out what some of the sounds are in the
    language you are studying that are difficult for non-native speakers and find ways to listen to native speakers
    pronouncing them repeatedly, especially in contrast to similar sounds or in minimal pairs. Get a recording of this and
    listen to it until you can hear the differences, and then work on pronouncing those sounds like your native-speaker
    friend.

    You might also like