The Minimal Pairs Approach

It is the so-called lexicological method or the method of minimal pairs. It is very simple and empirical. But serious pho-nologists regard it as unscientific, because if you want to work according to this method, then you rely entirely on the actual vocabulary of a language in the actual period of its development. Thus, for example, if you turn to the English language and wish to know whether [9] and [6] are different phonemes or variants of the same phoneme, then you have to rely entirely on the fact that ’thy’ and ’thigh’ are different words in English. In the method of minimal pairs they are also called quasi-homonyms. Thus, the whole of your system depends on just a pair of words.

It is, therefore, surprising that the method of ’minimal pairs’ should still be taken seriously. Phonology as an autonomous and exact science cannot depend on the whimsicalities of the lexis: nothing can be more humiliating and alien to phonological re­search than rummaging about for ’pairs’ like “scion — Zion” “allusion — Aleutian”, “sink — zinc” and so on.

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It would be of some interest to know that this method was introduced by descriptive linguists in America when they were trying to learn what was left of indigenous (native) languages of North-American Indians. Very often there would be a language of which there were only two persons still using it. In the case of the Nachez language, for example, there was one old man and one old woman, and they spoke different dialects.

APPENDIX 9

The Rules of Reading56

VOWELS

<A>

I. In accented syllables

1. [ei] before a vowel: baobab [’beiabab];

2. [ei] before a single consonant if followed by:

a) a mute <e>: make [‘meik]; b) <a>, <e>,<o>, <u>,<y>, of the final syl lable, if the consonant is not followed by a mute<e>: fatal [’feital], paper [’peipa], apparatus [aepa'reitas], but palace [’pselis], because a mute <e>follows<c>; c) <e>, <i> + vowel: radiate [’reidieit], station [’steijan]; d) the morphemes -able(s), -ing(s), -is or -ive(s): capable [’keipabl], making [’meikin], ba­sis [’beisis], native [’neitiv]. If the consonant is<r> then [ei] becomes [еэ]: care [’кеэ], parents [’pearants].

3. [a:] a) before final <r>, before <r> + another consonant, and also before final -rr(s), -rrh(s) and before rr + -ed, -er(s), -est or -ing(s): car [’ka:], part [’pa:t] /but marry [mseri] /; b) before final <h> or <h>+ a consonant: bah [’ba:], Fahrenheit [’farranhait].

4. [o:] a) in qua, wa, wha, where in other cases <a> = [a:]: quar­ter [’kwo:ta], war [’wo: ]; b) before Id, Ik, It and before final -ll(s) and -11 + -ed, -er(s), -est or -ing(s): bald [’bo:ld], fall [‘fo:l], calling [’ko:hn].

5. [se] before consonants everywhere else: cat [’kset], battle [’bsetl], tacit [‘tsesit], with the reservation that in qua, wa, wha<a>becomes [o]: quality [’kwoliti], watch [’wotf], what [‘wot].

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II. In unaccented syllables.

1. [э] in the majority of unstressed syllables: formula [’fo:mjula], ago [a'gau].

2. [i] before one consonant + final -e(s), e.g. in -ace(s), -ages, -ate(s): palace [’pselis], languages [lserjgwid3iz], palate [’pselit]. However, in the same words [э] is also possible: palaces [’paelasiz].

III. Digraphs with the letter <a>

ae = [i:] formulae [’formjuli:]; ae = [ia] before<r>: aerie [’iari]; ai, ay = [ei]: main [’mein]; ai, ay = [еэ] before <r>; fair [Tea]; ai = [i] in the unaccented final -ain(s): mountain [’mauntin]; au, aw = [o:]: author ['э:9э], austere [o:s’tia], awful ['o:fal].

<E>