Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T17:24:29.716Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Phonological development of word-initial Korean obstruents in young Korean children*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 March 2010

MINJUNG KIM  and
CAROL STOEL-GAMMON
MINJUNG KIM*
Affiliation:
Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of Washington
CAROL STOEL-GAMMON
Affiliation:
Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of Washington
*
Address for correspondence: Minjung Kim, Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of Washington, 1417 N.E. 42nd St. Box 354875, Seattle, WA 98105-6246. e-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study investigates the acquisition of word-initial Korean obstruents (i.e. stops, affricates and fricatives). Korean obstruents are characterized by a three-way contrast among stops and affricates (i.e. fortis, aspirated and lenis) and a two-way fricative contrast (i.e. fortis and lenis). All these obstruents are voiceless word-initially. Cross-sectional data were collected from forty Korean children aged 2 ; 6 (year;month), 3 ; 0, 3 ; 6 and 4 ; 0, and the acquisition patterns of Korean obstruents were explored based on productions of mono- and multisyllabic words. Results confirm the universal patterns: stops were acquired before affricates and fricatives. In terms of order of acquisition across different laryngeal types, lenis stops were the last to be acquired. For Korean fricatives, in contrast, the lenis category appears to be acquired earlier than the fortis category. This study proposes that this order of acquisition may be explained by articulatory complexity associated with language-specific phonetic properties.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 38 , Issue 2 , March 2011 , pp. 316 - 340
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

[*]

This study is based on the doctoral dissertation of the first author and was supported by the University of Washington Graduate School Fund. A portion of this work was presented at the Child Phonology Conference, Seattle, WA, 2007. We would like to thank the families who participated in this study.

References

REFERENCES

Allen, G. D. (1985). How the young French child avoids the pre-voicing problem for word-initial voiced stops. Journal of Child Language 12, 37–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Amayreh, M. M. & Dyson, A. T. (1998). The acquisition of Arabic consonants. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 41, 642–53.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bortolini, U. & Leonard, L. B. (1991). The speech of phonologically disordered children acquiring Italian. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics 5, 1–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cho, T., Jun, S.-A. & Ladefoged, P. (2002). Acoustic and aerodynamic correlates of Korean stops and fricatives. Journal of Phonetics 30, 193–228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clumeck, H., Barton, D., Macken, M. A. & Huntington, D. A. (1981). The aspiration contrast in Cantonese word-initial stops – Data from children and adults. Journal of Chinese Linguistics 9, 210–25.Google Scholar
Davis, K. (1995). Phonetic and phonological contrasts in the acquisition of voicing – Voice onset time production in Hindi and English. Journal of Child Language 22, 275–305.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dunn, L. M., Dunn, L. M., Robertson, G. J. & Eisenberg, J. L. (1979). The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test – Revised. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service.Google Scholar
Dyson, A. T. & Amayreh, M. M. (2000). Phonological errors and sound changes in Arabic-speaking children. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics 14, 79–109.Google Scholar
Eilers, R. E., Oller, D. K. & Benitogarcia, C. R. (1984). The acquisition of voicing contrasts in Spanish and English learning infants and children: A longitudinal study. Journal of Child Language 11, 313–36.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ferguson, C. A. & Farwell, C. B. (1975). Words and sounds in early language acquisition. Language 51, 419–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gandour, J., Petty, S. H., Dardarananda, R., Dechongkit, S. & Mukngoen, S. (1986). The acquisition of the voicing contrast in Thai – A study of voice onset time in word-initial stop consonants. Journal of Child Language 13, 561–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldstein, B. A. & Iglesias, A. (1996). Phonological patterns in normally developing Spanish-speaking 3- and 4-year olds of Puerto Rican descent. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools 27, 82–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grunwell, P. (1982). Clinical phonology. Rockville, MD: Aspen.Google Scholar
Hua, Z. & Dodd, B. (2000). The phonological acquisition of Putonghua (modern standard Chinese). Journal of Child Language 27, 3–42.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ingram, D., Christensen, L., Veach, S. & Webster, B. (1980). The acquisition of word-initial fricatives and affricates in English by children between 2 and 6 years. In Yeni-Komshian, G. H., Kavanagh, J. F. & Ferguson, C. A. (eds), Child phonology, Vol. 1, 161–192. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Iverson, G. (1983). Korean s. Journal of Phonetics 11, 191–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jakobson, R. (1968). Child language, aphasia, and phonological universals. The Hague: Mouton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jimenez, B. C. (1987). Acquisition of Spanish consonants in children aged 3–5 years, 7 months. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools 18, 357–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kagaya, R. (1974). A fiberscopic and acoustic study of the Korean stops, affricates and fricatives. Journal of Phonetics 2, 161–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kewley-Port, D. & Preston, M. S. (1974). Early apical stop production: A voice onset time analysis. Journal of Phonetics 2, 195–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, M. & Stoel-Gammon, C. (2009). The acquisition of Korean word-initial stops. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 125(6), 3950–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kim, M.-J. & Pae, S.-Y. (2005). The study on the percentage of consonants correct and the ages of consonantal acquisition for ‘Korean-Test of Articulation for Children (K-TAC)’. Speech Sciences (The Journal of the Korean Association of Speech Sciences) 12, 139–49.Google Scholar
Kim, Y.-T. (1996). Study on articulation accuracy of preschool Korean children through picture consonant articulation test. Korean Journal of Communication Disorders 1, 7–33.Google Scholar
Kim, Y.-T., Jang, H.-S., Yim, S.-S. & Paik, H.-J. (2004). Picture Vocabulary Test, 4th edn. Seoul: Seoul Rehabilitation Center.Google Scholar
Kim, Y.-T. & Shin, M.-J. (1992). The phonological processes of Korean children (II): focused on substitution. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders (The Journal of The Korean Speech & Hearing Association) 2, 29–51.Google Scholar
Lee, S., Davis, B. L. & MacNeilage, P. F. (2008). Segmental properties of input to infants: A study of Korean. Journal of Child Language 35, 591–617.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lee, S., Davis, B. L. & MacNeilage, P. F. (in press). Universal production patterns and ambient language influences in babbling: A cross-linguistic study of Korean- and English-learning infants. Journal of Child Language.Google Scholar
Locke, J. (1983). Phonological acquisition and change. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Macken, M. A. & Barton, D. (1980). The acquisition of the voicing contrast in Spanish: A phonetic and phonological study of word-initial stop consonants. Journal of Child Language 7, 433–58.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mowrer, D. E. & Burger, S. (1991). A comparative analysis of phonological acquisition of consonants in the speech of 2 ½–6-year-old Xhosa-speaking and English-speaking children. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics 5, 139–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pae, S., Chang, Y., Kwak, K., Sung, H. & Sim, H. (2004). MCDI-K referenced expressive word development of Korean children and gender differences. Korean Journal of Communication Disorders 9, 45–56.Google Scholar
Pye, C., Ingram, D. & List, H. (1987). A comparison of initial and final consonant acquisition in English and Quiché. In Nelson, K. E. & van Kleek, A. (eds), Children's language, Vol. 6, 175–190. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Sander, E. K. (1972). When are speech sounds learned. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders 37, 55–63.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shin, J. (2005). Phoneme frequency of 3 to 8 year-old Korean children. Korean Linguistics 27, 163–200.Google Scholar
So, L. K. H. & Dodd, B. (1995). The acquisition of phonology by Cantonese-speaking children. Journal of Child Language 22, 473–95.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sohn, H.-M. (1999). The Korean language. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Stoel-Gammon, C. (1985). Phonetic inventories, 15–24 months: A longitudinal study. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research 28, 505–512.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stoel-Gammon, C. (1998). Sounds and words in early language acquisition: The relationship between lexical and phonological development. In Paul, R. (ed.), Exploring the speech–language connection, 25–52. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.Google Scholar
Stoel-Gammon, C. & Dunn, C. (1985). Normal and disordered phonology in children. Baltimore, MD: University Park Press.Google Scholar
Stokes, S. F. & Surendran, D. (2005). Articulatory complexity, ambient frequency, and functional load as predictors of consonant development in children. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 48, 577–91.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Templin, M. C. (1957). Certain language skills in children: Their development and interrelationships, Institute of child welfare monographs, 26. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar