Purpose: This study investigated children's acquisition of Hong Kong Cantonese.
Method: Participants were 1,726 children ages 2;4 to 12;4 (years;months). Single-word speech samples were collected to examine 4 measures: initial consonants, final consonants, vowels/diphthongs, and lexical tones. A 2-way analysis of variance was performed to examine the effects of age and sex on phoneme acquisition.
Results: There was rapid acquisition of initial consonants from age 2;6 to age 4;6. All 19 initial consonants were acquired by age 6;0 (90% criterion): /p-/, /m-/, and /j-/ were acquired the earliest; the last were /ts(h)-/ and /s-/. Final consonants had a different acquisition time from their initial counterparts. Vowels were acquired by age 5;0 and diphthongs by age 4;0. All 9 tones were acquired by age 2;6. The main effect of age was significant for all 4 measures, whereas sex was significant for all measures except tone. Common phonological patterns (≥ 10%) for initial consonants were stopping, fronting, deaspiration, delabialization, affrication, and nasalization; patterns with 5.0%-9.9% occurrence were backing, deaffrication, gliding, and dentalization.
Conclusions: The acquisition of Cantonese showed similarities with English acquisition yet also had specific characteristics. Factors that contributed to the acquisition rate were functional load, articulatory ease, consonant-vowel interactions, phonetic variations, and the behavior of vowels and their allophones.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1044/1092-4388(2012/11-0080) | DOI Listing |
J Psycholinguist Res
December 2024
Communication Sciences and Disorders, Oklahoma State University, 042 Social Sciences and Humanities Building, Stillwater, OK, 74078, USA.
A premise of statistical learning research is that learners attend to and learn the frequencies of co-occurring sounds in the input, or phonotactic sequences. Inherent to the concepts of both frequency and phonotactics is order, or the temporal arrangement of the relevant elements. Order is similarly inherent to statistical learning, yet the effect of order on statistical learning is not well understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Acoust Soc Am
December 2024
Department of Radiology, Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA.
Identification and quantification of speech variations in velar production across various phonological environments have always been an interesting topic in speech motor control studies. Dynamic magnetic resonance imaging has become a favorable tool for visualizing articulatory deformations and providing quantitative insights into speech activities over time. Based on this modality, it is proposed to employ a workflow of image analysis techniques to uncover potential deformation variations in the human tongue caused by changes in phonological environments by altering the placement of velar consonants in utterances.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEur Arch Otorhinolaryngol
December 2024
Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud University, 12371, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Purpose: Cochlear implants have been proven to improve speech and language in children with severe-to-profound hearing loss. This review examines speech and language outcomes in prelingual Arabic-speaking children using cochlear implants.
Methods: A systematic search for articles was performed in PubMed, Scopus, ScienceDirect, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) using search strings developed from topic keywords.
Infant Behav Dev
December 2024
RIKEN Center for Brain Science, Japan; Waseda University, Japan; Duke University, USA.
J Stomatol Oral Maxillofac Surg
November 2024
Service de chirurgie maxillofaciale et chirurgie plastique, APHP, Necker Enfants-Malades, Paris 75015, France; Centre de Référence des Fentes et Malformations Faciales, APHP, Necker Enfants-Malades, Paris 75015, France; Université de Paris, UFR de Médecine, Paris 75006, France. Electronic address:
Objectives: The nasometer is the most widely used tool for objective assessment of phonation in both research and clinical practice. French standards have been validated in cases of total cleft lip and palate. The objective of this research is to propose a second validation study on velopalatal clefts.
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