This paper examines the findings and implications of the cross-linguistic acquisition of #sC clusters in relation to sonority patterns. Data from individual studies on English, Dutch, Norwegian, and Hebrew are compared for accuracy of production as well as the reductions with respect to potential differences across subtypes of #sC groups. In all four languages, a great deal of variability occurred both within and across children, but a number of general patterns were noted. While all four languages showed similar behaviour in reduction patterns, clear differences between the three Germanic languages-English, Dutch, and Norwegian-and Hebrew were found in the accuracy rate of #sC clusters that have a larger sonority distance between C1 and C2, in a binary split of /s/+[+cont.] versus /s/+[-cont.], and in #sC clusters versus non-/s/-clusters. Patterns in cluster reductions were, in general, supportive of the factorial typology of Pater and Barlow, while pointing at some difficulties for the predictions of the headedness approach advanced by Goad and Rose, and Jongstra. This cross-linguistic description of patterns of s-clusters increases our knowledge of typical phonological development and helps selecting targets in clinical context.
This paper studies the developmental stages of word initial consonant clusters (CCs) in the speech of six monolingual Israeli Hebrew (IH) acquiring hearing impaired children using cochlear implant (CI). Focusing on the patterns of cluster reduction, this study compares the CI children with typically-developing hearing children. All the CI children, three boys and three girls with age ranged from 1;5-2;8 years at their first recording session, were with pre-lingual hearing impairment with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss. Productions of word initial CCs were elicited in an isolated-word picture-naming task combined with spontaneously produced words. Data collection started 2-4 months after implantation and continued until the correct production of word initial biconsonantal clusters. Results reveal that both the developmental stages and reduction patterns of word initial CCs of the CI children are very similar to typically-developing IH acquiring children, thus supporting earlier studies which show that children with CIs follow the same stages of acquisition as hearing children.
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