CV co-occurrence and articulatory control in three Brazilian children from 0:06 to 1:07

Abstract

Many studies in language acquisition have addressed consonant/vowel co-occurrence, henceforth CV. Traditional views focus on the upper vocal tract, while a recent one stresses the importance of its lower end. None has nevertheless attempted to understand how these two tracts interact and cooperate in early vocalization. The role of the ambient language in this interaction is also understudied. The aim of this paper is to integrate such apparently contradictory views by observing activity in the entire vocal tract during the emergence of CV combinations in three Brazilian children interacting with their parents between the ages of 0:06 and 1:07. We have used a mixed longitudinal and cross-sectional method, whereby one child was followed longitudinally while the other two were observed at later, complementary stages. Data were collected using a digital recorder, transcribed with the aid of acoustic analysis, and later processed with a syllable counter. Our results uncovered the following trends: biomechanical constraints interact with ambient language inluences; control over articulations is diferent for vowels and consonants; infants tend to have a favorite babbling vowel; the lower vocal tract remains active past 12 months; and not all children acquire articulatory control in the same way. Overall, they do not support any speciic view, but, rather, call for the integration of several separate strands in the literature.