2006/01/01 by Susan Ott, Ruben van de Vijver, Barbara Höhle · 1 citation
Psychology · Mathematics · #Language Development and Disorders #Phonetics and Phonology Research #Reading and Literacy Development #Phonotactics #Consonant cluster #Consonant #Phonological development #German #Phonology #Linguistics #Psychology #Word (group theory) #Coda #Speech recognition #Speech production #Language development #Mathematics #Computer science #Developmental psychology #Vowel
paper · doi:10.1080/14417040600970622
openalex publication_date 2006/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In this study the effect of phonotactic constraints concerning word-initial consonant clusters in children with delayed phonological acquisition was explored. Twelve German-speaking children took part (mean age 5;1). The spontaneous speech of all children was characterized by the regular appearance of the error patterns fronting, e.g., Kuh“cow” /ku:/ →[tu:], or stopping, e.g., Schaf“sheep” /a:f/ →[ta:f], which were inappropriate for their chronological age. The children were asked to produce words (picture naming task, word repetition task) with initial consonant clusters, in which the application of the error patterns would violate phonotactic sequence constraints. For instance, if fronting would apply in /kl-/, e.g., Kleid“dress”, it would be realized as the phontactically illegal consonant cluster /tl-/. The results indicate that phonotactic constraints affect word production in children with delayed phonological developments. Surprisingly, we found that children with fronting produced the critical consonants correctly significantly more often in word-initial consonant clusters than in words in which they appeared as singleton onsets. In addition, the results provide evidence for a similar developmental trajectory of acquisition in children with typical development and in children with delayed phonological acquisition.