Practice question · True or false
A minimal pair proves that two sounds belong to different phonemes in that language.
Hints
- A minimal pair differs in exactly one sound and in meaning.
- If swapping the sound changes the word, the difference is contrastive.
Show the answer
True
Why
True, and it is the single most useful tool in phonology. Pat and bat settle the status of /p/ and /b/ in English in one step. The converse does not hold: failing to find a minimal pair does not prove two sounds are allophones, since gaps in the vocabulary are common.
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