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Discernible differences in the babbling of infants according to target language*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Bénédicte De Boysson-Bardies ,
Laurent Sagart  and
Catherine Durand
Bénédicte De Boysson-Bardies
Affiliation:
Laboratoire du Psychologie, C.N.R.S.
Laurent Sagart
Affiliation:
Centre de Recherches Linguistiques Asie Orientale, C.N.R.S.
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Abstract

Samples of babbling productions of 6-, 8- and 10-month-old infants from different language backgrounds were presented to adult judges whose task was to identify the infants from their own linguistic community. The results show that certain language-specific metaphonological cues render this identification possible when the samples exhibit long and coherent intonation patterns. The segmental indications that are present in the fully syllabic productions of canonical babbling do not allow the judges to identify the infants correctly from their own linguistic community. These results seem to support the hypothesis of an early influence on babbling of the metaphonological characteristics of the target language.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , February 1984 , pp. 1 - 15
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

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