This is a minimal pairs test used by Christopher Strelluf, a graduate student at the University of Missouri, who is studying how people in Kansas City talk.
This is a list of words that have one phonological difference. Some of the pairs are controls, as in they're pronounced the same.
Read the list aloud to see where you make distinctly different pronunciations, and where you might be merged. You might be surprised to find that some of words that you think you say very differently don't come out so distinctly after all.
- dew do
- but bet
- reed read
- pin pen
- full fool
- pill peel
- cot caught
- sell sale
- dawn Don
- know no
- hair her
- pull pool
- bowl bull
- gym gem
- Polly Pauley
