Subsegmental representation in child speech production: structured variability of stop consonant voice onset time in American English and Cantonese

Abstract

Voice onset time (VOT) of aspirated stop consonants is marked by variability and systematicity in adult speech production. The present study investigated variability and systematicity of voiceless aspirated stop VOT from 161 two- to five-year-old talkers of American English and Cantonese. Overall, many aspects of child VOT productions parallel adult patterns, the analysis of which can help inform our understanding of early speech production. For instance, VOT means were comparable between children and adults, despite greater variability. Further, across children in both languages, talker-specific VOT means were strongly correlated between [th] and [kh]. This correlation may reflect a constraint of “target uniformity” that minimizes variation in the phonetic realization of a shared distinctive feature. Therefore findings suggest that target uniformity is not merely a product of a mature grammar, but may instead shape speech production representations in children as young as two years of age.

Stop voicing perception in the societal and heritage language of Spanish-English bilingual preschoolers: The role of age, input quantity and input diversity

“…Recall that /t/ has characteristically longer VOT than /p/ (e.g., Nearey & Rochet 1974;Port & Rotunno, 1994). Thus, if children need, say, approximately 80 ms for a /t/ percept vs. 50 ms for a /p/ percept (Chodroff et al, 2022), assuming /d/ and /b/ have similar short-lag VOT values of approximately 10-15 ms, the /t-d/ contrast will be acoustically more distinct than the /p-b/ one; hence, children may be able to identify the coronal contrast earlier than the bilabial one. Williams (1979aWilliams ( , 1979b found indeed that the categorical boundary for /b/-/p/ changes systematically with age (19 ms for 8-10-year-olds, 21 ms for 14-16-year-olds, and 25 ms for adults).…”