Reductions, phonological complexity and phonetic variation in Danish children's first words: the role of phonotactics (original) (raw)
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Syllable reduction and articulation rates in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish
Journal of Linguistics
This investigation compares articulation rates of phonological and phonetic syllables in Norwegian, Swedish and Danish to investigate differences in degrees of syllable deletion (reduction) among these three languages. For the investigation two sets of data are used: one consisting of recorded speech from radio news and another consisting of sentences read aloud. The results of the comparative investigation show that in both data sets Danish exhibits a much larger degree of syllable reduction in speech than Norwegian and Swedish. The finding that certain syllable deletion processes take place in Danish but not in Norwegian and Swedish is viewed as typological. The results indicate that Danish words are shorter than their Norwegian and Swedish counterparts. This could be a contributing factor to problems that arise in inter-Scandinavian communication.
The Italian Journal of Linguistics, 2015
Syllables play an important role in children’s early language acquisition, and children appear to rely on clear syllabic structures as a key to word acquisition (Vihman 1996, Oller 2000). However, not all languages present children with equally clear cues to syllabic structure, and since the specific L1 is known to influence the acquisition rate, it is worth investigating how sonority characteristics in children’s linguistic input influence their lexical acquisition. Danish is characterized by having a monotonous sonority envelope compared to other Scandinavian languages. Danish language acquisition therefore presents us with the opportunity to examine how children respond to the task of word learning when the input language offers less clear cues to syllabic structure than usually seen. To investigate the sound structure in Danish children’s lexical development, we need a model of syllable structure; and as the theoretical basis for our analyses related to sonority we present Basbo...
Frontiers in Communication, 2019
The mental lexicon is dynamic and changes throughout the lifespan, but how does it begin? Previous research has established that children's first words depend on their communicative needs, but also on their phonetic repertoire and phonological preferences. In this paper, we focus on the phonological characteristics of children's first words, primarily looking at word-initial labials and word length in Norwegian children's first words, as well as at how parents accommodate to child patterns in their speech. Comparing the Norwegian child data with data from children speaking five different languages, we examine how the child's emergent lexicon is on the one hand shaped by the input of the ambient language, but on the other hand limited by more common phonological characteristics of child speech. Based on data from parental reports (CDI), we compared the 50 first words in Norwegian to those in Danish, Swedish, English, and Italian, analyzing two phonological aspects: word initial bilabials and word length in syllables. We found that Norwegian-speaking children follow the children speaking these other languages in having an affinity for word initial bilabials, but that the proportions of mono-, di-, and polysyllables vary depending on the language acquired. Comparisons of the Norwegian child data with samples of adult directed speech (ADS) and child-directed speech (CDS) revealed more word-initial bilabials and shorter words among children than among adults. The CDS was more similar to children's speech than ADS concerning the two phonological aspects dealt with here, which suggests that parents accommodate to children in phonologically detailed ways.
The acquisition of long consonants in Norwegian
This study 1 investigates the acquisition of the V:C vs VC: contrast in (Urban Eastern) Norwegian for sonorants and voiceless plosives. We find that by 2;6 years children already differentiate between these structures in their own productions, and do so most reliably through proportion of vowel duration in the rhyme (V/VC), with values close to the adult target, even while both vowels and consonants are much longer than in adult speech. By age 6, increasing phonetic fluency in the inter-gestural coordination of connected speech brings about an apparent regression in development, as children reduce certain segmental durations either too much or too little in the overall goal of increasing speed and fluency. The resulting distortions in phonetic mapping undermine the signaling of localized temporal relationships that had already been acquired. As in adults, the contrast signaling varies according to consonant manner: in sonorants the contrast is marked by variation in both V and C duration, and in V/VC; in voiceless stops, the contrast is subtler and only marked by V and V/VC. The relative complexity of temporal relations for stops is discussed, with competing demands of length and phonological voice. The temporal relation between vowel and consonant duration is the most systematic marker of the contrast, rather than contrastive duration in either the consonant or vowel alone. Finally, we find evidence for preaspiration as a possible secondary cue to long stops, present also in the earliest stages of child speech investigated and hitherto unreported for this variety of Norwegian.
Syllable deletion in contemporary Danish.
Danish has been described as a language exhibiting particularly many reduction phenomena, a development which might lead to impaired intelligibility. This paper quantifies syllable deletion and articulation rate in spoken Danish and investigates their effects on the intelligibility of Danish to native speakers. In a crossed-design, sentences in four experimental conditions were presented to native speakers of Danish in a translation task. The conditions were (i) quick and accurate (few syllable deletions) speech, (ii) quick and inaccurate speech, (iii) slow and accurate speech, and (iv) slow and inaccurate speech. The results reveal that slow and accurate speech is most intelligible, while quick and accurate speech is least intelligible to native speakers. The findings are discussed in the light of auditory and articulatory theoretical frameworks of speech production and perception.
Features in child phonology: inherent, emergent, or artefacts of analysis?
The emergence of features plays a key role in any theory of phonological development that does not assume that they are innately available before the onset of speech. After reviewing Jakobson's claims for universal orders of emergence, we consider possible criteria for feature or segment acquisition, and then discuss data from nearly 50 children (10 languages including Estonian, Finnish, Japanese, and Welsh as well as several Germanic and Romance languages). Small early vocabularies and phonetic variability make minimal pairs rare in most children. While a few children show clear evidence of utilizing features or segments, others show none, and most fall between these extremes. Gradually increasing evidence of segmental structure and systematicity reflects the slow transition to a more orderly phonology. These data support an emergentist model of feature acquisition that has many possible routes to (re-)creating phonological organization within the individual child's mind.
From first words to segments: A case study in phonological development
The emergence and later fading of two phonological templates - a 'palatal' template and consonant harmony - are investigated in the first 500 words produced by a child acquiring Estonian and English. Throughout the period the child's use of palatal forms, in particular, considerably exceeds their frequency in Estonian, the child's dominant language. Regression in accuracy is also traced, both overall and in individual word forms. Changes in frequency of use of the template patterns are related to growth in the size of the lexicon, the consonant inventory, and the length in syllables of words attempted. Articulatory difficulty is found to play at best a minor role in motivating pattern use, which is ascribed instead to the challenges of planning and recall.
Phonetic reductions and linguistic factors
2013
In natural communication it is common for speakers to vary between distinct and reduced pronunciations of words or phonemic strings. This paper highlights the some results from a recent large scale study of the occurence of phonetic reductions in Danish spontaneous speech. In this study phonetic reduction is explored by mapping the abstract phonemic representation in a spontaneous speech corpus with the actual phonetic realization on a phone-by-phone basis. By investigating the occurence of distinct vs. reduced realizations of phonemes, it is demonstrated that the propensity for phonetic reduction is closely related to various levels of linguistic description, e.g. the articulatory traits of the individual phonemes, their phonological context, morphological structure, grammatical function and pragmatic factors.