Temporal patterns of geminate stops in Hungarian 7-year-old children and young adults

Abstract

The mastery of accurate timing control depends on physiological factors and cognitive skills, which take many years for children to develop. The acquisition of consonant length has been investigated mainly in infants’ early production, and in children’s perception in light of their phonological awareness. The present study aims to gather empirical evidence about geminate production in the later stage of language development, to gain a better understanding of the acquisition of phonological contrasts. The acoustic correlates of length distinction were analysed in Hungarian-speaking 7-year-old children’s and adults’ spontaneous speech. Results confirmed that length categories were better distinguished by closure duration in adults than in children. VOT was unaffected by gemination and produced in an adult-like way at the age of seven. Secondary acoustic cues of the length contrast associated with the relational timing of vowels and consonants showed adult-child differences, which provide information about refining timing skills and emerging phonetic/phonological abilities.