A Dictionary of Phonetics and Phonology
n. A procedure for testing for the presence of a phonological contrast (sense 1) between two linguistic items. One native speaker is asked to pronounce the two items repeatedly in an arbitrary order selected by the investigator, while a second native speaker tries to identify them.
A success rate of around 100 per cent indicates a contrast; a success rate around 50 per cent indicates free variation. Cf. repetition test. Harris (1951:32–33).
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