PHONEME is the smallest unit of a sound in any language. Some phonemes have different types or forms; and any of the different forms of a phoneme is called ALLOPHONE. Especially, the same sound can be pronounced differently when it is used at the beginning or at the end of the word as in these words including /r/: red, radio..... and more, four, girl, fur...etc. /r/ is not the same when it is used at the beginning of the word and at the end of the word. Another example of allophone is /a/ in Turkish. There is only one /a/ in Turkish, but several allophones like kar- kâr / hala-hâlâ...or / â/ which we use in the word kâğıt...etc. MINIMAL PAIR - MINIMAL SET: Two words in a language which differ from each other by only one phoneme occuring in the same position and which also differ in meaning are called minimal pair. If the same situation exists in more than two words , thats a minimal set. e.g. The words edge and age are minimal pair. Words like write,fight,site,height are minimal set. These word pairs are the minimal pairs: pat-fat, bun-ban, bet-bat, pat-cat ;however, pat-pen is not a minimal pair as two phonemes are different.
Posted on: Thu, 10 Jul 2014 00:25:00 +0000
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