Monday 26 November 2018

Minimal pairs: /ʊ/ and /uː/

Ex. 1 Look at the following words containing the short vowel /ʊ/ and find their counterparts containing the long vowel /uː/. N.B. Not all the examples are true minimal pairs, as in some of them the vowel /uː/ is preceded by the semi-vowel /j/.

could, full, good, nook, rebook, should, soot

Ex. 2 Write which of these words contain the following vowels: a. /ʊ/, b. /uː/, c. another vowel (which one?).

lust, flu, shoe, root, room, crust, butcher, punting, strewth, booking, brooch


KEY
1. cooed, fool, gooed (covered with goo), nuke, +/j/ rebuke +/j/, shooed, suit (optional /j/)
2. a. /ʊ/ butcher, booking, outlook /ˈaʊtlʊk/ 
b. /uː/ flu, shoe, root, strewth, news
c. /ʌ/ lust, crust, punting, /əʊ/ brooch (and /aʊ/ in the first syllable of 'outlook')
The word 'room' can have /ʊ/ or /uː/.

When in doubt, I used the Cambridge Dictionary website at https://dictionary.cambridge.org.

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