Year: 2016
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Phonological acquisition by children is strongly influenced by language-specific and socio-environmental factors, rather than being determined strictly by linguistic universals or biological constraints.Although early research, primarily on acquisition by monolingual English-speaking children, supported the hypothesis of linguistic universals, evidence from cross-language studies show wide variation in the acquisition order of sounds.Looking specifically at the acquisition of the nonsibilant fricatives /f/, /x/, and /h/, this study examines acquisition patterns by bilingual Guoyu-Taiwanese Southern Min speaking children in Taiwan.Transcription results show that while children are able to articulate both [x] and [h] before the age of 2;5 (2 years and 5 months), /f/ is phonologically acquired first around the age of 5, while /x/ and /h/ are acquired after the age of 6.The late acquisition of /x/ and especially /h/ may result from the wide range of /x/ and /h/ realizations by adults, due to the relative statuses of the two languages and the linguistic history of Taiwan.The current study complements Shih's (2012) study on the acquisition of sibilants to provide a holistic account of fricative acquisition by children in Taiwan.
Author: Jennifer Qian Zhang
Institution: The Ohio State University
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2619441690