Phonological Patterns in Dominican Spanish-English Bilingual Preschoolers: Implications for Assessment

Abstract

Spanish dialects are either conservative or radical. The phonology of Conservative (e.g., Mexican) dialects remains close to the spelling (e.g., /dos/ “two” ➝ [dos]). Radical Spanish (e.g., Puerto Rican dialect) dialects vary significantly in their syllable structure (e.g., /dos/ [do]). Few studies have researched radical dialects, and the studies that have only examined Puerto Rican Spanish (e.g., Anderson & Smith, 1987; Goldstein, Fabiano, & Washington, 2005; Goldstein & Iglesias, 1996). We could not locate any studies on the Dominican dialect of Spanish-English bilinguals, a group quickly becoming the number one Spanish community in New York and New Jersey (United States Census Bureau, n.d.). Our purpose was to investigate the phonological patterns of Dominican Spanish in bilingual children. Phonological processes were analyzed for five 3-year-old and five 4-year-old Dominican children. Word-level analyses were made and compared to Goldstein & Iglesias' 1996 study of phonological patterns found in typi...