LECTURE 2: PHONOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT

phonemes vs allophones

• Phonemes: Sounds that differentiate meaning in a language.

• Allophones: Variations of sounds that do not change meaning.

• Real-Life Example: In English, swapping /p/ and /b/ changes "pat" to "bat" (phonemes). However, the aspirated /p/ in "pin" vs. unaspirated /p/ in "spin" are allophones in English (they sound slightly different but mean the same thing).

Perceptual Tuning (Universal Listeners to Native Specialists)

The developmental shift where infants transition from being able to discriminate all global phonetic contrasts at birth to losing non-native contrasts by 10–12 months of age

• Real-Life Example: A 6-month-old American baby can hear the difference between Hindi or Japanese phonetic contrasts, but by 11 months, they tune exclusively to English phonemes.

Canonical (Reduplicated) vs. Non-Reduplicated Babbling

• Canonical/Reduplicated Babbling (6–9 mos): Repeating consonant-vowel pairs (e.g., dadada).

• Non-reduplicated Babbling (9–12 mos): Varying consonant and vowel sequences (e.g., mbato).

• Real-Life Example: An 8-year-old baby sitting in a high chair chanting "mamama" is displaying canonical reduplicated babbling.

intermodal perception

the ability to use two or more senses (like sight, hearing, touch, or smell) at the same time to understand a single object or event

aspects of quality

joint attention: mutual attention between child and parent; two people jointly interacting over something, like a parent and child attending to each other over an object

• there are cultural differences

caregiver responsiveness

infant directed speech:

a special way to talk to babies; exaggerated intonation, slower pace, longer vowels

• widespread but not universal due to cultural differences

categorical perception

the brain's ability to group a continuous spectrum of sounds into distinct, separate categories

• how babies and adults hear the difference between the consonant sounds "ba" and "pa."

universal listeners

Young infants can distinguish phonemic contrasts across all world languages. By 10–12 months, perceptual tuning occurs, turning infants into "native language specialists" as they lose the ability to discriminate non-native contrasts (unless exposed early).

phones

the raw physical sounds a language uses

phonotactics

Phonological rules dictating permitted sound combinations in a language (e.g., /kr/ is allowed in English, /zp/ is not).

Pre-linguistic Vocal Productions (Stark, 1986)

1. Reflexive Crying & Vegetative Sounds: Birth to 6–8 weeks.

2. Cooing & Laughter: 6–16 weeks.

3. Vocal Play: 16–36 weeks.

4. Reduplicated (Canonical) Babbling: 6–9 months (e.g., bababa). Babbling drift occurs as infants drift toward native language prosody.

5. Non-reduplicated Babbling: 9–12 months.

6. Jargon: Babbling combined with adult-like prosody.

common phonological errors

reduplication, final consonant deletion, unstressed syllable deletion, consonant cluster reduction, consonant harmony (assimilation), gliding, stopping, lexical selection, phonological awarenress

Reduplication

Syllable repetition (baba for bottle)

Final Consonant Deletion

Omitting final sounds (bu for bug)

Unstressed Syllable Deletion

• Omitting unstressed syllables (bana for banana).

Consonant Cluster Reduction

• Deleting one consonant from a cluster (pider for spider).

Consonant Harmony (Assimilation)

Whole word pronunciation influenced by a neighboring sound (bub for tub).

Gliding

where a child repalces a glide sound for a liquid sound

• Replacing /l/ or /r/ with /w/ or /j/ (wabbit for rabbit)

Stopping

Substituting a stop consonant for a fricative (tea for sea).

Lexical Selection:

Children strategically choose to produce words containing sounds they have already mastered.

Phonological Awareness:

• Awareness of the internal sound structure of words (rhyming, alliteration, segmenting), which is critical for literacy and spelling.