Phonological Development Chapter 3

Definitions Articulation: speech sound production; actually saying the sounds of speech; placement of the articulators Phonology: study of the sound system and how the sounds produced are specifically combined to create and signify meaning

English Speech Sounds And Sound Patterns A “phone” is a sound made by the vocal tract, and may or may not be a sound for meaningful speech. A “phoneme” is a sound produced in order to accomplish meaningful speech.

Each speech sound is represented by a symbol. The system of written speech symbols is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

English Speech Sounds And Sound Patterns Distinctive Features Distinctive features are used to classify and to describe the speech sounds of a language.

Major Sound Classes 1. Vowels 2. Consonants Classified by 3 characteristics: 1. The place of articulation 2. The manner of articulation 3. The presence or absence of voicing Vowels: the vocal tract is completely unobstructed. Different vowel sounds are produced by varying the positions of the articulators: how wide the jaw opening is, whether the bulk of the tongue is held toward the front or the back of the mouth, whether the lips are in smile position Consonants: are made with a more restricted vocal tract How are we able to make different vowels? (position of articulators) Place of articulation- which articulators are involved: alveolar ridge, palate, tongue Manner of articulation- how the speech sound is produced Voicing- Presence or absence of voicing-presence or absence of vocal fold vibration during production

Classification of Consonants Labiodental Interdental Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal

Phonotactic Constraints Are the permissible sequences of sounds in a language English words do not begin with “ng” Some clusters are not used at the beginning of words- /lp/ in “help” and /rt/ as in “sport” Each language of the world has its own phonotactoc system as well as its own set of phonemes. Are “phonology rules”

Suprasegmentals Are parts of the phonological system that extend beyond individual sounds. Examples- stress and intonation patterns Stress- timing patterns Chicken, balloon Intonation- rise of fall of melody or pitch during speaking

Productions During The Prelinguistic Period

Productions During The Prelinguistic Period A. Stage 1- Reflexive Vocalizations (Birth – Two Months) 1. Reflexive vocalizations Cries, coughs, grunts 2. Nonreflexive vocalizations Cooing (vowel-like sounds) B. Stage 2-Cooing and Laughter (Two – Four Months) 1. Cooing or gooing sounds 2. Laughter & chuckles appear *How we develop sounds and sound patterns Nonreflexive are nonautomatic productions containing many phonetic features found in adult languages. vocalization types typically overlap from one stage to another. A new stage is marked by the appearance of vocal behaviors not observed in the preceding period. -Stage 1-limited range of sound types because of the small oral cavity and mostly filled by tongue. -Stage 2- sounds made at the back of the mouth, with velar consonants and back vowels. Crying typically becomes less frequent,

Productions During The Prelinguistic Period (Con’t) C. Stage 3 Vocal Play (Four to Six Months) Vocal play Discovery of articulators Characterized by very loud, very soft sounds and very high, very low sounds, and sustained vowels -yells/whispers -squeals/growls -vocal play- raspberries (bilabial trills) and sustained vowels -occasionally rudimentary syllables of consonants and vowels will occur.

Productions During The Prelinguistic Period (con’t) D. Stage 4- Canonical Babbling (Six – Ten Months) 1. Canonical babbling The child produces consonant-vowels syllables with adult-like intonation- “mama” “dada” Reduplicated babbles (strings of identical syllables, “dadada”) Variegated babbles (syllable strings with varying consonants and vowels, like “babegado”) -these productions show no evidence that they are semanitcally linked to an identifiable referent, so for this reason these forms would not be considered words. Stage 4- we observe that babbling slowly decreases in deaf infants and gain less consonants than hearing babies

Productions During The Prelinguistic Period (con’t) E. Stage 5- Jargon Stage (Ten Months And Older) Jargon-form of babbling with conversational intonation. Cross-cultural evidence suggest that all infants seem to pass through the same stages of vocal development. -Jargon is composed of vocalizations, syllables using different stress and intonation -other names for jargon include conversational babble or modulated babble -overlaps with the early period of meaningful speech -jargon vocalizations are delivered with eye contact, gesture and inronation so rich and appropriate that the person addressed typically feels compelled to respond -Normal developing children usually stop producing jargon at about age 2

Patterns of Development: General General Characteristics 1. Voiceless consonants typically emerge first 2. /a/ is typically the first vowel to emerge (then /i/ and /u/) 3. Sounds are easier to learn in the initial position than the final position -T before d, s before z -back vowels usually appear first then middle, then front- /a/, /i/, /u/

Words/Protowords Protowords are consistent sound patterns used in consistent situations to indicate a child’s want/need. The protowords are not always recognizable to the adult form; but then through reinforcement and continued practice a child will start forming real words.

Adult-Like Pronunciations A child goes from protowords easily to real words and how they do it is hard to explain. Researchers look at several things to try and explain it. -regularity of protoword production (Children develop systematic approaches to reproduction of words)

Regularity of Production Attempts Perception Suprasegmental-segmental interaction (stress) Assimilation Rule discovery

Phonological Error Patterns Phonological Processes are: “The error patterns that result from children’s early attempts to produce words, while they are still learning to control their articulatory apparatus.”

Phonological Error Patterns A. Feature Changes Voicing (devoicing) or place of articulation (fronting/backing)- Saying “gat” instead of “cat” or “tat” for “cat” B. Cluster Reductions Consonant clusters are difficult sounds for young speakers; thus many children leave out one of the sounds. “tore” for “store” These are phonological errors/changes that children do as they develop a more mature phonological system Some examples include changes in voicing or changes in articulation. -Children will keep the same placement, but change voicing-gat for cat -Children will say a front sound for a back sound- tat for cat -Chilfren will reduce on of the sounds in a cluster. They more commonly say the stop and delete the fricative

Phonological Error Patterns C. Omitting Unstressed Syllable (Syllable Reduction) For example: “mato” for “ tomato” D. Assimilation Errors- “Changing a sound in a word to make it more similar to an adjacent or nearby sound in that word or neighboring word, e.g., pronouncing “greenbeans” as “greembeans.” -spagehetti-getti -assimilation- will often keep placement the same- blantit for blanket -pancakes as pandates -child may produce initial voice stops correctly Down/down Initial unvoiced stops are produced in the correct position of articulation but with incorrect voicing: pipe/bipe, Car/gar Bug/gug This shows that when a word contains two stop sounds with different places of articulation he could only get one of the places right, and the other sound was changed to match the sound he produced correctly.

Phonological Error Patterns Assimilation (continuation) Assimilation may also involve manner of production A child may make initial consonants nasal if the final consonant is nasal. “means” for “beans” “nance” for “dance” “mump” for “bump”

Cross-cultural Differences in Phonological Development Children who speak other languages such as Spanish, Japanese, and Finish may use different strategies and phonological patterns from children learning English.

Phonological Development By three years of age, most children are able to pronounce all vowel sounds and most consonants in their language, although they still make many errors. Consonants such as liquids and fricatives are likely to be in error even at 4or 5. Consonant clusters, especially in initial-word position, are not mastered until age 7 or 8. Liquids /l,r/ Fricatives /v/, “th”

Completion of Phonetic Inventory By 7 yrs of age, most children have acquired the entire phonetic inventory.

Completion of Phonetic Inventory Reasons why children’s speech does not sound like an adults even after acquisition of the phonetic inventory: Children speak slower and with greater variability in pronunciation and timing. Children’s voices are higher Children may adopt speech styles that are used by their “group” -some children from regions of the country may use rising intonation on both questions and statements, whereas adults in that region do not.

Development of English Morphophonology Morphophonology- “The rules governing sound changes that accompany the combination of morphemes in a language.” e.g. native/nationality, divine/divinity (here there is a sound change in the pronunciation of the stem of the word)

Development of English Morphophonology Between 7;0 and 12;0, the child learns more complex derivational structures and morphophonological rules.

Class Activity Describe the phonological error. What phonological patterns is the child using? 1. “gug” for ”bug” 2. “doad” for ”toad” 3. “pandate” for “pancake” 4. “loon” for “balloon” 5. “pill” for ”spill” Error in place of articulation. Substitute back sound for front sound. Error in voicing. Substitutes voiced for voiceless 3. Assimilation- n,d and t are all alvealor sounds 4. Syllable reduction 5. Cluster simplification