Multilingual English-Mandarin-Malay phonological error patterns: An initial cross-sectional study of 2 to 4 years old Malaysian Chinese children

Abstract

Child multilingual phonological errors are under-explored. Cross-linguistic studies suggest monolingual children make phonological errors that are subject to effects of language universality and ambient language characteristics. Bilingual Chinese children were observed to use not only typical, but also atypical phonological errors compared to monolingual peers acquiring similar languages. Atypical errors are a result of specific bilingual pair effects. Close-language-relatedness (Cantonese-Mandarin) is claimed to be responsible for the nonexistence of atypical errors in both languages, whilst distant-language-relatedness (Cantonese-English) is observed to cause atypical errors in both languages. The present novel cross-sectional study investigated phonological acquisition in three typologically distant languages: English-Mandarin-Malay by 64 multilingual Chinese children aged 2½-4½. The present research aimed to explore if multilingual Chinese children exhibit phonological errors which commensurate to that of monolingual and bilingual Chinese children acquiring similar languages as described in the literature. The single-word phonological test results revealed that the multilinguals exhibited typical and atypical phonological patterns which largely commensurate with the monolinguals and bilinguals. Similar to bilingual children, the multilingual children showed more atypical errors in English than in Mandarin, demonstrating effects of individual language irrespective of potential interaction with additional languages. The present result did not fully support the link between closeness in typology of languages and the absence of atypical errors. Rare atypical errors were found in Mandarin and Malay, two typologically different languages, and both were also interacting with English, another typologically different language. The present findings provided useful preliminary multilingual speech norms for the use of speech therapists.

Development of Digitized Mandarin Paediatric Speech Perception Test Materials for Malaysian Children

“…In addition, for the pitch contour inspected via spectrograms, it was observed that Tone 3 and Tone 4 are carrying a similar falling contour shape. This finding is consistent with previous studies (Lim et al 2015;Lim 2018) demonstrating that the pitch contour for Tone 3 is mid-low to low (2-1) for the Malaysian Mandarin (Maldarin), rather than mid-low, low to midhigh (2-1-4) for the Chinese Putonghua. Regardless of this similarity in terms of pitch contour, the Tone 3 word tokens with such pitch contours were acceptable and not discarded.…”

Comparing the Informativeness of Single-Word Samples and Connected Speech Samples in Assessing Speech Sound Disorders

“…Developmental or typical phonological patterns (i.e., natural phonological processes), which are observed in more than 10% of a peer group, become gradually inhibited with age and constitute a sign of the maturity of the phonological system. Phonological patterns that occur in less than 10% of the peer group and are not inhibited with development are defined as atypical (Lim, 2018;Preston et al, 2013). Nondevelopmental or atypical phonological patterns are a sign of a phonological disorder.…”

“…Nondevelopmental or atypical phonological patterns are a sign of a phonological disorder. However, substantial variation has been observed in the categorization of phonological patterns across studies (Jeng, 2011;Lim, 2018;Xin Xin & To, 2017).…”

Analisis Pola Masa Mula Suara Konsonan Plosif Bahasa Melayu yang dihasilkan oleh Penutur Mandarin Dewasa (Analysis of Voice Onset Time on Malay plosives by Mandarin Adult Speakers)

“…Kebanyakan kajian yang dilaksanakan ke atas penutur Cina adalah untuk meneliti masalah pembelajaran yang dihadapi dan kadar kesalahan yang dilakukan dalam proses mempelajari bahasa Melayu sebagai bahasa kedua dari segi penulisan (Chew Fong Peng, 2016;Norsimah Mat Awal et al, 2012) dan sebutan (Lim Hui Woan & Lim Su Hui, 2017). Kajian mengenai kadar pemerolehan fonologi dan pola kesalahan kanak-kanak pelbagai bahasa Bahasa Inggeris-Mandarin-Bahasa Melayu (Lim, 2018;Lim et al, 2015) juga sudah dijalankan di Malaysia. Namun begitu, data mengenai kontras suara bahasaMandarin dalam bahasa Melayu masih kurang dikaji.…”