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Homophones are two words with the same sound, but different meaning, like red and read (the past tense of to read ).

  • Is there a linguistic term which refers to two or more words which have almost the same, but not quite the same sound? I am particularly referring to the situation which happens in Chinese, in which two words have a similar sound, and would even have the same spelling in IPA, but different tone, for example 到 (dao) which has a falling tone and 岛 (dao) which falls, then rises, so they are nearly alike in pronunciation, not not identical.

  • Is there a broader linguistic term which both includes homophones and these “almost-homophones”?

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  • Can you give an example or two of pairs of words you consider almost homonyms? Do you mean a near rhyme?
    – JLG
    Commented Aug 31, 2012 at 14:04
  • An English-language example of the phenomenon you describe in Chinese might be a word that differs only in stress (and thus, pitch), such as record as a noun versus record as a verb.
    – tchrist ♦
    Commented Aug 31, 2012 at 14:32
  • One example of tones distinguishing words in (American) English is "valet" vs. "valley." Depending on which syllable you emphasize, you get one word or the other (almost).
    – Matt Chambers
    Commented Oct 15, 2014 at 4:28
  • Related: What word means “almost a homophobe”?
    – Volker Siegel
    Commented Jun 12, 2015 at 9:35

3 Answers 3

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There is a linguistic term which refers to two or more words which have almost the same, but not quite the same sound. It has nothing to do with the spelling, however.

It's a term for the two words, as a pair. Beat [bit] and bit [bɪt] , for example, which differ only in their vowels - tense high front [i] and lax high front [ɪ] -- are said to be a Minimal Pair for the two sounds that differ.

Discovery of a minimal pair is evidence that the two sounds that differ are in contrast, not in Complementary Distribution. That means that native speakers have to routinely distinguish them because they are the only way they could tell the difference between the two words.

So they are therefore separate Phonemes. I.e, you can write them not just phonetically as [i] and [ɪ], but phonemically, as /i/ and /ɪ/. Knowing this is important to linguists (and occasionally interesting to others).

That's how we know there are around fourteen vowels in English, instead of the five Middle English "vowel letters" we're stuck with now -- in Middle English there were far fewer, but all of them came in two lengths, which were wiped out by the Great Vowel Shift. We have minimal pairs for all of them.

The simplest set of minimal pairs for English vowels that I know of in my American dialect is

beat /i/, bit /ɪ/, bait /e/, bet /ɛ/, bat /æ/, bought /ɔ/, but /ə/

bot /a/, boat /o/, put /ʊ/, boot /u/, bite /ay/, bout /aw/

There is no English word *[bʊt], but Luke and look are a minimal pair for them. /oy/ doesn't occur in this frame, but there are minimal pairs for all three diphthongs as well -- buy, boy, bough, for instance.

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    You will find [bʊt] in north England, 'north' meaning roughly north of Birmingham. It is a land where the FOOT vowel rules, and the STRUT vowel fears to tread, and /bʌt/ becomes /bʊt/.
    – Roaring Fish
    Commented Aug 31, 2012 at 15:10
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    British Englishes, especially Northern ones, are another kettle of vowels entirely. There's far more phonetic variation in any hundred mile square of Great Britain than there is in all of North America. They've simply been speaking English so much longer there.
    – John Lawler
    Commented Aug 31, 2012 at 16:48
  • @John Lawler: By rights that should give us Brits a better "ear" for dialects, since we should hear more of them, more often.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Dec 1, 2012 at 2:52
  • Well, you live there, so you can tell. I don't, so I can't.
    – John Lawler
    Commented Dec 1, 2012 at 3:07
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Yes, "quasi-homophones". "Quasi" means "seeming or seemingly; nearly". As a prefix it's generally hyphenated. It's pronunced /kwah-zee/.

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    Except when it's pronounced "kway-zye", as in the first pronunciation given by Merriam-Webster merriam-webster.com/dictionary/quasi
    – nohat
    Commented Aug 31, 2012 at 15:13
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    @nohat: I think that’s a typo for [kwazaɪ], because [kwɛɪzaɪ] sounds hilarious. Unless you were joking, in which case I’m just being obtuse. :P
    – Jon Purdy
    Commented Aug 31, 2012 at 18:17
  • @Jon did you listen to the audio? KWAY-zye is the first pronunciation given by not just Merriam-Webster, but all the online dictionaries I checked: dictionary.com, which has Random House and Collins, and thefreedictionary.com, which has American Heritage. Same with Cambridge and Oxford
    – nohat
    Commented Aug 31, 2012 at 20:15
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    @nohat: Next you’ll tell me that lingerie is pronounced langeray. :(
    – Jon Purdy
    Commented Sep 1, 2012 at 0:45
  • I've come to this a little late, Elberich, but can you give an authoritative reference (rather than what appears a nonce usage or a translation from French) endorsing this term?
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented May 24, 2019 at 16:22
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I like "quasi-homophones," but maybe we should stick with "near homophones." Here's a list I made over a period of months. I didn't spend hours on this. Whenever I happen to think of a pair of near homophones, I add it to the list. (Some are nearer than others.)

ALMOST HOMOPHONES It’s windy today. No, it’s Thursday.  So am I; let’s have a beer. 

abdominal = abominable. anonymous = unanimous. appellation = Appalachian. culpable = capable. collusion = collision. condescension = condensation. cooperate = corroborate. curdle = cuddle. discussed = disgust. festival = vegetable. elicit = illicit. interface = interfaith. irreverent = irrelevant. melody = malady. militias = malicious. precedent = president. supplies = surprise. tempter = temperature. unaware = underwear. underserved = undeserved.

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    Hello, Wayne and welcome to ELU. I'm afraid that this answer, which appears to be very subjective (and gives a list of word-pairs which are nothing like minimal pairs), is not suited to the site.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented May 24, 2019 at 16:26
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    Thank you, Edwin. Sorry you don't like my answer. I think if you listen to "festival" and "vegetable" with an open mind you will know that those two words truly are almost homophones. Peace..
    – Waynne
    Commented May 24, 2019 at 17:27

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