Contrastive voicing acquisition in 2-year-old children: Preliminary data

Abstract

Earlier studies using voice-onset time (VOT) as the acoustic marker of contrastive voicing acquisition in English have differed widely in method and statistical procedures. Research in this area has shown three primary patterns of voicing acquisition for English stop consonants. One report indicates children demonstrate discrete voicing categories with adult-like VOT values as early as 2 years old. Other reports suggest a subperceptual distinction of the voicing contrast, followed by an exaggerated voicing contrast with evidence of more adult-like discrete categories by 3 years old. Still other reports suggest no distinction between the voicing categories until approximately 3 years. This work investigates voicing acquisition in three typically developing, English-speaking 2-year-old children. The subjects were recorded every 2 weeks for 4–6 months. Approximately 15–20 tokens were elicited for four target utterances containing initial /b p t d/. Frequency distribution, measures of central tendency, and skewness will be calculated for every recording session of each child. Discussion will focus on the development of contrastive VOT categories and their stability over time. These data will contribute to our understanding of laryngeal timing for English stop consonants in young children.