Phonological metathesis phenomenon in the early speech of Arabic-speaking children

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the phonological metathesis phenomenon in the early speech of Arabic-speaking children. Based on analysis of a longitudinal data from 11 children's speech, the study mainly aims at investigating (1) the characteristics/nature of the phonological metathesis process in early child speech and (2) how it is different from adult phonological metathesis. The study explores the causes behind the metathesis phonological process in child speech.Design/methodology/approach This paper explored the phonological metathesis phenomenon based on a longitudinal study of 11 monolingual Arabic speakers of Yemeni-Ibbi Dialect (YIA) and cross-linguistic data from various languages.FindingsThe data analysis showed that metathesis phenomenon in child speech has several characteristics. It occurs at an early age, at 2 years and decreases with age. It was found that metathesis occurs mostly in disyllabic and trisyllabic words or more complex syllabic words, but metathesis rarely occurs in monosyllabic words in children's speech. The results indicated that unlike metathesis in adult speech, metathesis in children's speech occurs in undeliberate, slow, fast speech. The study explored that adjacency of sounds with similar phonological features, the ease of pronunciation, or the sonority effect are the motivations that trigger metathesis phenomenon to occur in child speech.Originality/valueIn the literature, the metathesis phonological process has got a little attention from researchers, and this is due to the rare cases of metathesis and the inconsistency of cases and the occurrence of metathesis. However, there is no consensus among the researchers about the causes of emergence and the occurrences behind the metathesis process. However, this study argues that the metathesis process has unique characteristics in child speech in comparison to adult speech and that there are some causes for metathesis to occur in human speech particularly in children's data such as adjacency of sounds with similar phonological features or sonority effect.

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“…The substitution of[r] to[l] is beyond the scope of the paper and is not discussed. However, it reveals that metathesis can emerge together with other processes, as has been suggested in other surveys(Qasem, 2023). Generally, other processes that appear and do not affect the application of metathesis are not discussed.…”

“…On the other hand, in children the shift of only one segment constitutes rare case of metathesis (Bernhardt & Stemberger, 1998). However, it can occur together with other processes, such as deletion (Qasem, 2023). The present study investigates the purpose of metathesis in Greek-speaking children and how it facilitates them to acquire their mother tongue.…”

“…The second factor is related to indeterminacy of the signal, which is affected by the listener's experience of specific sounds or sequences of them or by the lack of sufficient phonetic cues for some segments in a given context (Hume, 2004). In child speech, it is equally ignored due to the lowest degree of appearance in comparison to other processes, such as substitution of segments (Qasem, 2023). One common feature in adults and children's metathesis lies to its systematic emergence when two non-default distinctive features participate (Gerlach, 2010).…”

“…Child's Form Child: Age Qasem, 2023: 225) This is attributed to the children's preference to move acquired consonants, since in Arabic sibilants emerge frequently and as a result they are easier to be produced by them in comparison to others. Furthermore, metathesis is mostly triggered when two side by side consonants located word medially share some distinctive features, such as place or manner (Qasem, 2023) (Łukaszewicz, 2007). In (15), the same strategy is employed in order for both members of the cluster to be preserved and for the Syllable Contact Law to not be violated, as the consonant [l] bears higher sonority in regard to the consonant [v] As illustrated in ( 16), the reorder of [r] creates a well-formed cluster and leads to the highest possible sonority distance between the first and the second syllable, as vowels bear the highest sonority.…”