Editing Minimal pair (section)

===Quantity===
Many languages show contrasts between long and short vowels and consonants. A distinctive difference in length is attributed by some phonologists to a unit called a [[chroneme]]. Thus, [[Italian language|Italian]] has the following minimal pair that is based on long and short {{IPA|/l/}}:
{|class="wikitable"
! spelling || IPA ||meaning
|-
| {{lang|it|pala}} ||{{IPA|/ˈpala/}}|| shovel
|-
| {{lang|it|palla}} ||{{IPA|/ˈpalla/}} || ball
|}
However, in such a case it is not easy to decide whether a long vowel or consonant should be treated as having an added chroneme or simply as a [[geminate]] sound with phonemes.

[[Classical Latin]], [[German language|German]], some [[Languages of Italy|Italian dialects]], almost all [[Uralic languages]], [[Thai language|Thai]], and many other languages also have distinctive length in [[vowel]]s. An example is the ''cŭ/cū'' minimal pair in the Italian dialect that is spoken near [[Palmi, Calabria|Palmi]] (Calabria, Italy){{clarify|date=May 2023|reason=Please specify the name of the dialect}}:

{|class="wikitable"
! Dialect spoken in Palmi || IPA || Quality || Etymology || Latin || Italian || English
|-
| Cŭ voli? || {{IPA|/kuˈvɔːli/}} || short || cŭ < lat. ''qu(is)'' ("who?") || Quis vult? || Chi vuole? || Who wants?
|-
| Cū voli? || {{IPA|/kuːˈvɔːli/}} || long || cū < lat. ''qu(o) (ill)ŭ(m)'' ("for-what him?") || Quō illum/illud vult? || Per che cosa lo vuole? || For what (reason) does he want him/it?
|}

====Syntactic gemination====
In some languages like Italian, word-initial consonants are [[geminate]]d after certain vowel-final words in the same [[prosodic unit]]. Sometimes, the phenomenon can create some [[syntactic gemination|syntactic-gemination]]-minimal-pairs:

{|class="wikitable"
! Italian [[sandhi]] || IPA || Meaning || Sample sentence || Meaning of the sample sentence
|-
| {{lang|it|dà casa}}  || {{IPA|/dakˈkaza/}} || (he/she) gives (his/her) house || ''{{lang|it|Carlo ci dà casa.}}'' || Carlo gives us his house.
|-
| {{lang|it|da casa}} || {{IPA|/daˈkaza/}} || from home || ''{{lang|it|Carlo uscì da casa.}}'' || Carlo got out from home.
|}
In the example, the graphical [[accent (phonetics)|accent]] on ''dà'' is just a [[diacritical mark]] that does not change the [[pronunciation]] of the word itself. However, in some specific areas, like [[Tuscan dialect|Tuscany]], both phrases are pronounced {{IPA|/daˈkkaːza/}} and so can be distinguished only from the context.