Don't touch my phonemes (was: minimal pairs ex: PIE e/o Ablaut)

[David L. White]

        Well, I stand semi-corrected.  Anyway, my point was one that I think
should be obvious upon reflection:  that speakers do know the phonemes of
their native language, just as they know the words, or they wouldn't be able
to speak it.  It is fairly simple after all:  what people are 1) able to
control productively, and 2) able to hear perceptively is phonemic.  For
English /th/ vs/ /dh/, the question to ask is something like "In a story
where two brothers were named "Lith" and "Lidh", would an audience be able
to keep them apart?"  The answer is clearly yes, regardless of the various
other consideration that some have noted, therefore the distinction is (not
surprisingly) phonemic.