Phonology: a Child's First Year

Phonology: a Child's First Year

1. 17 Week Old Foetus

   • A foetus can hear sounds in utero. This is often shown when a child reacts more when they hear a certain person's voice or piece of music
   • In 1988, Mehler found that French babies had a stronger reaction to French sounds at 4 days old than English, Spanish, or Italian. This proved that babies become accustomed to their native language before birth

2. Pre-Lingual Stage

   • Stage One: Biological Noises 0-2 Months
     • Involves a lot of crying (usually taking the form of the long /a:/ sound)
     • The child begins to gain control of their air stream
     • This isn't really a "language", as parents of all nationalities understand the different types of crying
   • Stage Two: Cooing and Laughing 2-5 Months
     • We begin to see a control of vocal chords, but the sounds are meaningless, like "coo", "hoo", and "ga".
     • Tongue control is evident when coos get strung together
   • Stage Three: Vocal Play 5-8 Months
     • The child begins to experiment with different vowel and consonant sounds and pitch
     • There is no meaning behind these noises- they're just playing
     • Parents may respond very positively to certain sounds, and as a result, the child may produce these again and again
   • Stage Four: Babbling 6-12 Months
     • After starting, babbling happens for a long time, permeating even into the holophrastic phrase
     • Consonants begin to get linked to vowels, but there is still no meaning to these sounds
     • Parents will react if "da" or "ma" is pronounced (coincidentally)
     • Reduplicated babbling is when the sound is repeated, like "mammama"
     • Variegated babbling is when the sound is differed, like "bamama"
     • Phonemic expansion: to start with, a child will experiment with as many sounds as they can
     • Phonemic contraction: at roughly 9-10 months, the child narrows their range to those found in their native language. At this point, a parent can recorgnise a child of the same nationality
     • A child gains more control over their body and face at this point, and so paralinguistic features develop (gesturing and facial expressions)
     • The child also develops intonation as of real speech. This includes rising intonation at the end of the interrogative mood
   • Stage Five: Melodic Utterances 9-18 Months
     • A child lets out utterances with rhythm
     • Tone is developed
   • Stage Six: Protowords 12 Months
     • These are utterances which resembles words, like "dap" for a phone.
     • These protowords would not make sense outside the context of primaary caregivers

3. Consonant Acquisition

   • In the 1980's, Pamela Grunwell's research examined the rates of acquisition of consonant sounds. Her research details that generally, children will learn these phonemes at these ages
     • 2: /p,b,m,d,t,w,n/
     • 2.6: /k,g,h/
     • 3: /f,s,j,l/
     • 3.6: /d3,v,z,r,t , /
     • 4: /0,3, /