Previous research on Bulgarian consonant acquisition reports earlier acquisition of stops, nasals and glides than fricatives, affricates and liquids. The current study expands the investigation of Bulgarian consonant acquisition. The primary objective was to identify characteristics of protracted versus typical phonological development (PPD versus TD) relative to consonant match (accuracy) levels and mismatch patterns. A native speaker audio-recorded and transcribed single-word productions (110-word list) of sixty 3- to 5-year-olds (30 TD, 30 PPD). Another two transcribers confirmed transcriptions using acoustic analysis for disambiguation. Data generally confirmed previous findings regarding the order of consonant acquisition. Factors characteristic of PPD in comparison with TD were: lower match levels, especially at age 3 for onsets in unstressed syllables: later mastery of laterals; and a greater proportion and range of mismatch patterns, including deletion and more than one feature mismatch per segment (e.g., Manner & Place). The paper concludes with clinical and research implications.
This paper addresses how input variability in the adult phonological system is mastered in the output of young children in Akan, a Kwa language spoken in Ghana, involving variability between labio-palatalized consonants and front rounded vowels. The high-frequency variant involves a complex consonant which is expected to be mastered late, while the low-frequency variant involves a front rounded vowel which is expected to be mastered relatively early. Late mastery of complex consonants was confirmed. The high-frequency labiopalatalized-consonant variant was absent at age 3 and not yet mastered even at age 5. All children produced the easier-to-produce low-frequency front-rounded-vowel variant, most at far greater frequency than in adult speech, implying that a child's output limitations can affect which variant the child targets for production. Modular theories, in which phonological plans reflect only the characteristics of adult input, fail to account for our results. Non-modular theories are implicated.
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