Return of the minimal pairs

[Stanley Friesen]

At 02:17 PM 5/17/01 +0300, Robert Whiting wrote:

>On Thu, 10 May 2001, Larry Trask wrote:

>>   this / thistle
>>   they / Thalia (also 'theta' in US accents)
>>   that / thatch
>>   these / thesis
>>   thus / thumb
>>   though / Thor
>> ...

>It is not a minimal pair as long as there is a morpheme boundary involved.
>Unless, of course, you claim that morpheme boundaries are not phonological
>conditions.  And every one of your near minimal pairs involves a morpheme
>boundary after [D].

Huh?  I see no morpheme boundaries *after* [D] in any of the above
words!  The words 'this', 'they', 'that', 'these', 'thus', and *especially*
'though' are mono-morphemic in my dialect.

Oh, in *Old* English all of them except 'thurh' could have been analyzed as
multi-morphemic, but that has nothing to do with the current state of affairs

--------------
May the peace of God be with you.         sarima at friesen.net