ERIC Number: EJ1062110
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015-May
Pages: 13
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0305-0009
EISSN: N/A
The Syllabic Status of Final Consonants in Early Speech: A Case Study
Yuen, Ivan; Miles, Kelly; Cox, Felicity; Demuth, Katherine
Journal of Child Language, v42 n3 p682-694 May 2015
Young children's first attempts at CVC words are often realized with the final consonant being heavily aspirated or followed by an epenthetic vowel (e.g. "cat"/kaet/ realized as [kaet[superscript h]] or [kaet[superscript ?]]). This has led some to propose that young children represent word-final (coda) consonants as an onset-nucleus sequence (CV.C[superscript v]) (e.g. Goad & Brannen, 2003), raising questions about the syllabic status of the final consonant. To address this issue, we conducted an acoustic analysis of a child's early production of CVC, CVC[superscript h], and CVCV words between the ages of 1;3 and 1;5. Aside from aspiration, the results showed that there were no significant acoustic differences between the CVC and CVC[superscript h] forms. In contrast, there were systematic acoustic differences in C[subscript 2] closure duration between the CVC/CVC[superscript h] and CVCV target words, suggesting that at least some children learning English have early coda representations for monosyllabic CVC words, whether heavily aspirated or not.
Descriptors: Young Children, Case Studies, Child Language, Syllables, Phonemes, Acoustics, English, Phonology
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Institutes of Health (DHHS)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: R01HD057606