Further on minimal pairs 3 [was Re: PIE e/o Ablaut]

[Stanley Friesen]

[ moderator changed Subject: header ]

At 05:07 PM 4/22/00 -0500, proto-language wrote:

>the qualification being that I take 'meaning', which Trask does not define
>in the same place,  as a difference in concept not in inflection. I would
>say that 'sooth/soothe' does not establish /dh/ as an English phoneme but
>that 'ether/either' does.

I do not perceive the difference between sooth and soothe as
*inflectional*, I perceive it as *derivational*.  That is it is closer in
effect to 'similar/similarity' than to 'hit/hits'.

So, even if I accept you caveat, I would still treat 'sooth/soothe' as a
minimal pair.  (In fact I barely even perceive these two words as related)!

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May the peace of God be with you.         sarima at ix.netcom.com