Acquisition of consonants among typically developing Akan-speaking children: A preliminary report

Amoako, Wendy Kwakye; Stemberger, Joseph Paul; Bernhardt, Barbara May; Tessier, Anne-Michelle

doi:10.1080/17549507.2020.1825804

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Some words were repeated at the end to allow evaluation of consistency. Amoako, Stemberger, Bernhardt and Tessier (2020) present more detailed information about the word list, as well as results for general consonant development. Materials can be found on the web at 4.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acquisition of variability in Akan Phonology: Labio-palatalized consonants and front rounded vowels

Amoako

Stemberger

2021

J. Child Lang.

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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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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acquisition of variability in Akan Phonology: Labio-palatalized consonants and front rounded vowels

Amoako

Stemberger

2021

J. Child Lang.

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“…If the vowels are so hard to perceive as different, how do Akan speakers learn to produce them differently? A recent study of first language acquisition by nine Akan-speaking children (Asante-Twi dialect) aged three to five years (Amoako, 2020) shows that these particular vowel distinctions may not necessarily be the ones posing problems. Her results indicate that all +ATR vowels have a lower production 10 Kirkham and Nance (2017) describe the situation as follows: "An examination of individual speaker data shows two divergent patterns amongst the Twi speakers: GF01 and GF02 produce /e/ slightly more advanced than /ɛ/, whereas GM01 and GM02 produce /e/ slightly more retracted than /ɛ/.…”

Section: Implications For the Phonology Of Akanmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perception of ATR contrasts by Akan speakers: a case of perceptual near-merger

Rose

Obiri-Yeboah

Creel

2023

Laboratory Phonology

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Despite many acoustic, articulatory and phonological studies of Advanced Tongue Root (ATR) vowel contrasts and vowel harmony, studies of the perception of ATR contrasts by speakers of languages with ATR vowel distinctions are lacking. This paper explores how vowels which differ for ATR or height, or both, are distinguished by speakers of Akan, a Kwa language of Ghana. We examine whether the phonological contrastive status of the vowels impacts perception or whether it is driven by acoustic similarity. Results from two experiments reveal that vowels that differ only for ATR are well distinguished, even those that are in an allophonic relationship. Yet, vowels that are contrastive and differ by both ATR and height features, but are acoustically similar, are poorly perceived. We suggest that these vowel contrasts constitute a case of perceptual near-merger.

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“…Recent research on child language acquisition in spoken African languages such as Akan (Amoako et al, 2020; Amoako & Stemberger, in press) has given new perspectives in the field of child language acquisition. For example, although it has been reported that vowels and tones develop early in languages, the acquisition of vowels in Akan ‘is not complete till age five, and errors in tone productions are observed even at age five’ (Amoako & Stemberger, in press) pointing to the effects of language-specific complexities in phonological development.…”

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confidence: 99%

Child language acquisition research on indigenous African sign languages: A commentary on Kidd and Garcia (2022)

Edward¹

2022

First Language

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It is not always the case that an endangered language goes through a revitalisation programme. For most endangered languages, there are no attempts for revitalisation, and we may never hear of them, nor understand their child language acquisition process. Currently, our understanding of sign language acquisition by children is framed by the research on the few sign languages that have child language acquisition research projects. There is a dearth of research on child language acquisition of indigenous African sign languages.

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Acquisition of consonants among typically developing Akan-speaking children: A preliminary report

Cited by 7 publications

References 19 publications

Acquisition of variability in Akan Phonology: Labio-palatalized consonants and front rounded vowels

Acquisition of variability in Akan Phonology: Labio-palatalized consonants and front rounded vowels

Perception of ATR contrasts by Akan speakers: a case of perceptual near-merger

Child language acquisition research on indigenous African sign languages: A commentary on Kidd and Garcia (2022)

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