Re: THEORY: Phonology: Natlangs: Attested Minimal Pairs?

Patrick Littell wrote at 2005-08-15 22:32:52 (-0400)
 > On 8/15/05, Tom Chappell <tomhchappell@...> wrote:
 > >
 > > Hello, everybody in the group and on the list.
 > > I have a question about phonology.
 > >  Is every pair of distinguished sounds in IPA actually attested as a
 > > minimal pair distinguishing two different lexemes in some natlang?
 > >
 >
 > > How about every pair of distinguished sounds in X-SAMPA or
 > > C-XSAMPA?  How about every pair of distinguished sounds in
 > > Alexander Melville Bell's Visible Speech?
 > >
 >
 > Oh, definitely not. Not even close, really. Let me try to think of
 > an example... well, for example, I don't think any distinguish
 > between bilabial and labiodental fricatives.

Ewe, apparently.  See minimal pairs here:
http://hctv.humnet.ucla.edu/departments/linguistics/VowelsandConsonants/course/chapter11/ewe/ewe.html

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