A longitudinal study of the production of contrasts in voice-onset-time by English and Spanish learning children

Abstract

Sixteen infants (half from English-speaking and half from Spanish-speaking communities) were recorded between 6 and 12 months and again at 2–212 years. All utterance initial stop consonants were sorted according to place of articulation. Voice-onset-time was measured using an oscilloscope with an average measurement error of 4 ms. The two year olds were recorded imitating 10 replications of short lag or long lag and lead category stops in a CV nonsense syllable at three places of articulation. Oscillographic measurements of VOT were made of each of these imitations. Results indicate that both groups of infants had similar distributions of VOT with modal values near 0. However considerable spread into both the long lag and lead regions was noted for both groups. By 212 years of age half of the children in each group had “acquired” their native contrast. Most children collapsed the non-native contrast and produced the foreign element at near 0 VOT consistent with the infant production mode. [Work supported by NIMH.]