When I asked my students for examples of homophones, they were more than willing to quickly answer. So, hands went up in quick succession. One of them mentioned 'sleep' and 'slip'. Another one mentioned 'heat' and 'eat'. Other examples included 'cheat' and 'sheet', 'off' and 'of' and 'worn' and 'won'.
When I mentioned that the examples given aren't homophones, they tried the more. It was then I realised the importance of the having a lesson to discuss, first and foremost, the difference between homophones and minimal pairs.
Homophones
Before the definition is attempted, let's break down the meaning of homophone. 'Homo' means 'same' while 'phone' means 'sound'. So, homophone means same sound. Homophones are different words which are pronounced alike or the same way. These words have the same sound but different spellings and different meanings. Examples include:
meet/meat/mete flower/flour
weak/week sea/see
two/too/to cell/sell
be/bee won/one
been/bean steal/steel
brake/break corps/core
roar/raw ewe/you
draft/draught knew/new
pray/prey fate/fete
jail/gaol aloud/allowed
Other examples include wright/right/write, sight/cite/site, suite/sweet, sew/so/sow.
For more on homophones: See the link below.
Minimal Pairs
When my students cited some of the examples mentioned in the introduction, they were surprised when I told them the examples they cited aren't homophones. What are they then? They were curious to know. I told them that most of the examples cited are minimal pairs. Minimal pairs? A number of them haven't heard of minimal pairs before. Perhaps you haven't heard of minimal pairs before too!
Minimal pairs are words (i.e. two words) such as 'cheat' and 'sheet', 'off' and 'of' and 'worn' and 'won' that are different in one sound. In other words, the difference between words that are minimal pairs is just in one sound (not one letter). These difference can be seen:
1. In the beginning of words. Examples include:
i. big/pig
ii. cake/bake
iii. cheat/sheet
iv. letter/better
v. see/tea
2. In the middle of words. Examples include:
i. sleep/slip
ii. worn/won
iii. pack/park
iv. born/burn
v. dead/deed
Someone may then ask, but what's the difference between these words, particularly in Nigeria where we hardly pronounce, for instance, 'born' and 'burn', distinctly (in a way that shows that they are different). The transcription of the examples cited above will be necessary.
i. /sli:p/ and /slɪp/
ii. /wÉ”:n/ and /wÊŒn/
iii. /pæk/ and /pa:k/
iv. /bɔ:n/ and /bɜ:n/
v. /ded/ and /di:d/
3. Finally in words. Examples include:
i. of/off
ii. word/work
iii. wash/watch
We shall only attempt the transcription of the examples in (i) above because it is assumed that the distinction in the pronunciation of the other examples cited above are obvious. While 'of' is pronounced /DV/, 'off is pronounced /Df/. So, 'of' and 'off' are not homophones.
The blogger, Ọlábánjì Odùrómbì, can be contacted via SMS, WhatsApp, or Voice call on 08037699294. He is the author of A Text of English Sounds. Find details about the book at
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