Minimal Pairs

When there are two words that have all the same sounds (phonemes) except for one that;s different, that's a minimal pair.

We looked at minimal pairs that involve the glottal stop phoneme.

We looked at these short words.

ao. 1. v.i. (Be) day, daylight, esp. dawn.

Ao 2. n. World.

a'o1 – breath

aꞌo2 – line, sting, fishing line etc

'ao1 – to snatch

'ao2 – to pack something into something etc

They are all very similar except for the glottal stop.

ao and aꞌo are minimal pairs

ao and ꞌao are minimal pairs

Here are the vidoes the students made:

Tapu look at a different set of short words ua - rain ꞌua -seed uꞌa female (of an animal only ) and ꞌūꞌā - thigh