Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics
Two expressions (words or morphemes) of a language with different meanings that are distinguished by only one phoneme; e.g. Eng. mail vs nail, Fr. père ‘father’ vs mère ‘mother,’ Span. tu ‘your’ vs su ‘his/her,’ Ger. Gasse ‘lane’ vs Kasse ‘cashier.’ Contrasting minimal pairs is a basic procedure in establishing the phonemic inventory of a language.
References
phonology
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