While teaching from Exodus, Wayne was going through the Ten Commandments, when he noticed some questioning looks on some of the Piapocos´ faces. They kept repeating, `…not fly…not fly…´ When he said it again himself a couple times, he finally said it right, and the lights came on. `Oh, you were wanting to say, not to be adulterers, but it came out, `not to fly´. They were surprised that their own language had two words so much alike, only differentiated by the low or high accent.
By never hearing the words said out of context, it had never occurred to them that their language is full of minimal pairs. For we English speakers, it is like saying the words, `red´ and `read´. How do we know which one is used when? It is in the context, and we don´t think about it, because we and the hearers know what we are meaning.