Word-medial Position Research Articles

The acoustic realization and timing of glottal stops in Hawaiian

Studies of glottal stop realization have shown that it is often not produced with full closure (Ladefoged and Maddieson, 1996), but conditioning factors are not well understood. This study focuses on Hawaiian, which has phonemic glottal stop that is contrastive in both word-initial (/ˀaka/ “laugh,” [aka] “shadow”) and word-medial position (/pua/ “flower,” /puˀa/ “to excrete”). Glottal stop realization is examined with respect to word position, different versus identical flanking vowel (/puˀu/ “hill”), and duration of the target /VˀV/ sequence. Data from eight native speakers come from the Ka Leo HawaiÊ»i radio program. The majority of glottal stops are produced as a period of creaky voice (63%), either in a modal-creaky-modal, modal-creaky or creaky-modal configuration. Full closures (6.6%) were more likely in word-initial position, and identical flanking vowels led to longer periods of creak. Some tokens had only an intensity dip. Shorter target intervals had longer proportions of creak. These findings for the glottal stop phoneme are consistent with research on the timing of contrastive voice quality in vowels, which show a preference for modal-nonmodal-modal patterns to ensure that vowel quality, voice quality, and tone are recoverable (Silverman, 1997). Effects of word position and flanking vowel are also related to recoverability and segmentation.

An experimental study on the production of Korean affricates by Chinese learners of Korean

The purpose of this study is to analyze pronunciation errors and acoustic characteristics on Korean affricates produced by Chinese learners of Korean. To do so, listening judgement tests by Korean natives and acoustic analysis were conducted against produced tokens by Chinese learners. Listening judgement results showed that Chinese learners did not articulate lenis accurately in the ‘zha’ and ‘zhi’ groups and had difficulties in pronouncing lenis with being confused with fortis sounds in word-initial. They did show some confusions with lenis and fortis sounds reciprocally in the ‘azha’ and ‘azhi’ groups in word-medial position. On the aspect of pronunciation improvement, produced tokens of the ‘zha’ group showed an improvement to some degree with the accumulation of learning experience but those of the ‘zhi’ group rarely showed the effect of learning experience. In word-medial, produced tokens of the ‘azha’ group showed some improvement with the accumulation of learning experience. The ‘azhi’ group, however, was not affected by learning experience at all. According to the results of acoustic analysis Chinese learners of Korean distinguished types of affricates in the ‘zha’ group by CF-VOT. For the ‘zhi’ group, CF-VOT was the main factor to distinguish aspirated from lenis and fortis sounds while distinguishing lenis from aspirated using f0 (Chinese females). In word-medial, The Chinese learners’ production cues for the affricates in ‘azha’ and ‘azhi’ groups were almost the same as those of the Korean group. One more thing to mention is that Chinese males distinguished lenis from fortis and aspirated sounds by means of f0.

Lengthening and shortening processes in Korean

This study examines the duration of Korean lax and tense stops in the prosodic word-medial position, their interactions with nearby segments, and the phonological implications of these interactions. It first examines the lengthening of consonants at the function of the short lax stop. Experiment 1 shows that the sonorant C1 is significantly longer before a short lax stop C2 than before a long tense stop. Experiment 2 shows that the short lax stop C1 cancels the contrast between the lax and tense obstruent at C2, making them appear as long tense obstruents (Post-Stop Tensing Rule). We suggest that such lengthening phenomena occur in Korean to robustly preserve the contrastive length difference between C and CC. Second, this study examines the vowel shortening, known as Closed-Syllable Vowel Shortening, before a long tense stop or before the consonant sequence. Experiment 3 suggests that it be interpreted as temporal adjustment to make the interval from the onset of a vowel to the onset of the following vowel of near-equal length. Conclusively, we suggest that Korean speech be planned and controlled with two specific intervals. One is the duration of contrastive consonant intervals between vowels, and the other is the duration from the onset of a vowel to the onset of the following vowel.

Coda consonant production in French-speaking children

ABSTRACT This study examined coda production in French-speaking children, aged 2;6 to 6;10 (n = 141). The primary aim was to provide normative information on coda production with a large group of children. The secondary aim was to investigate factors which influence coda production such as age, manner and place of articulation, word length, word position, and bilingualism. Children took part in a word-naming task in which they produced words containing word-final and -medial codas. Results indicated that French-speaking children, as young as 2;6, produce word-final codas with a high degree of accuracy (i.e. 80%). Age had minimal effects on coda presence (i.e., whether a coda was realized or not) but it did influence coda accuracy (i.e. whether a coda was realized target-like). Older children had better coda accuracy scores than younger children. Manner of articulation influenced coda production: the younger children had the lowest scores for liquid and fricative codas whereas the older children, for fricative codas. A closer examination of coda production according to voicing revealed it was voiced obstruent codas which obtained low accuracy scores across age groups. Word-length influenced coda realization with the youngest age group producing codas more often in one- versus two-syllable words. Children produced codas more often in word-final versus word-medial position with the greatest differences evident in the youngest children. Bilinguals obtained better coda scores than monolinguals at the youngest ages and poorer ones at the oldest ages. The study concludes with a discussion of the clinical implications of the findings.

Initial lenition and strength alternations (v/b) in Neapolitan: A laryngeal Branchingness condition

In Central and Southern Italian dialects, the word-initial position plays host to a large number of strength-based alternations involving voiced stops. In this paper we look specifically at the v/b pair in Neapolitan. Strikingly, the absolute initial position appears to be weak with the voiced stop patterning phonologically like a singleton in word-medial position (v). After a variety of morphemes however, roots surface with the strong version of the consonant (b). These root-initial consonants (which would otherwise surface as weak) pattern phonologically like word-internal geminates. The strong form of the alternating consonant is a voiced stop. The initial position, although it hosts the weak allophone, is neither prosodically nor positionally weak. Voiceless stops, whose lenition actually is positionally conditioned, surface with their strong variant in this position. Rather than initial positional weakness, we identify a specific condition on the voiced stop variant (b). The voiced stop alternations that characterise initial-weakness are caused by a Branchingness (feature sharing) condition that plays a crucial role in determining strength. The alternating pairs are subject to a condition by which they must be bipositional in order to be strong. The (root) initial position is not weak, indeed only a positionally strong position could host such a contrast. Positional strength and Branchingness weakness have a quasi-morphological interplay that potentially aids the identification of morpheme boundaries. Though the pattern we describe is phonological, we speculate that it could constitute an intermediate step in the morphologisation of initial strong/weak alternations, a typological step toward developing initial mutation.

Diagnosing Saudi Students' English Consonant Pronunciation Errors

Diagnosing the pronunciation difficulties second language (L2) learners encounter assists in identifying their training needs. Since a clearer profile of Arab students' English pronunciation difficulties is yet to be reached, this study tried to identify which English consonant sounds and clusters Saudi English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) students have difficulty in pronouncing, and examine how students' language proficiency levels may influence their English consonant pronunciation performance. Forty Saudi female university students with two different English proficiency levels (lower-intermediate versus intermediate) took part in the study (20 students in each group). They completed a 4-section productive pronunciation test diagnosing their errors in pronouncing problematic consonant sounds and clusters in varied word positions. The data analysis showed that the participants' highest error percentages were in pronouncing: /ʒ/, /ŋ/, /p/, /ɹ/ and/ʧ/; /t/ and /d/ of the regular past morpheme -ed; and the 4- and 3-consonant clusters. It was also found that the lower-intermediate level students made more errors than the intermediate ones in pronouncing the majority of the consonant sounds and clusters, and that the variance between their errors is generally higher in the word-initial positions than the word-medial and -final ones. The study indicates that the consonants in the word-initial and -final positions are likely to cause more pronunciations difficulties than the ones in the word-medial position.

Tone-induced split in stop category mapping by Korean learners of Mandarin Chinese

AbstractThe present study reports a novel case where a simple one-to-one category mapping may develop into a systematic one-to-two mapping over the course of second language acquisition. We examined the split in category mapping of the Mandarin unaspirated stops conditioned by tone by Korean-speaking learners of Mandarin Chinese (e.g. Mandarin /ta35/ to Korean lenis [ta] vs. Mandarin /ta55/ to Korean fortis [t’a]). Korean L2 learners and naïve listeners participated in identification tasks in whichf0contours of Mandarin words containing unaspirated stops with short-lag VOTs were digitally manipulated. In word-initial position, learners showed a near-categorical perception from lenis to fortis asf0increased, while most stimuli were identified as fortis by naïve listeners. The effect off0was much smaller in word-medial position, but the group difference remained the same, confirming the two groups’ differential use of phonetic cues for stop identification. Taken together, a substantial reorganization of perceptual cues, namely the promotion off0concurrent with significant underweighting of VOT cues, seems to have taken place during L2 acquisition. The findings were discussed with reference to PAM-L2 whereby the knowledge of the L2 phonological system along with particular phonetic properties of the L2 sounds may have driven a perceptual regrouping of the L2 stop categories.

Diagnosing Saudi Students' English Consonant Pronunciation Errors

Diagnosing the pronunciation difficulties second language (L2) learners encounter assists in identifying their training needs. Since a clearer profile of Arab students' English pronunciation difficulties is yet to be reached, this study tried to identify which English consonant sounds and clusters Saudi English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) students have difficulty in pronouncing, and examine how students' language proficiency levels may influence their English consonant pronunciation performance. Forty Saudi female university students with two different English proficiency levels (lower-intermediate versus intermediate) took part in the study (20 students in each group). They completed a 4-section productive pronunciation test diagnosing their errors in pronouncing problematic consonant sounds and clusters in varied word positions. The data analysis showed that the participants' highest error percentages were in pronouncing: /ʒ/, /ŋ/, /p/, /ɹ/ and/ʧ/; /t/ and /d/ of the regular past morpheme -ed; and the 4- and 3-consonant clusters. It was also found that the lower-intermediate level students made more errors than the intermediate ones in pronouncing the majority of the consonant sounds and clusters, and that the variance between their errors is generally higher in the word-initial positions than the word-medial and -final ones. The study indicates that the consonants in the word-initial and -final positions are likely to cause more pronunciations difficulties than the ones in the word-medial position.

Plosive (de-)voicing and f0 perturbations in Tokyo Japanese: Positional variation, cue enhancement, and contrast recovery

This study addresses the two-way laryngeal contrast of plosives in Tokyo Japanese, which is commonly analyzed as a “true voicing” language. We examine how voicing-related properties of the plosive and f0 of the following vowel varied with the position in the word and in the sentence. We compare word-initial with word-medial positions for words in citation (between two pauses) and for two prosodic conditions in a carrier sentence: with vs. without a preceding pause. In word-initial position, unlike in a typical “true-voicing” language such as French, voiced plosives in Tokyo Japanese show a high devoicing rate, while voiceless plosives are moderately aspirated. A combination of VOT and f0 of the following vowel is used to distinguish the two plosive series. In word-medial position, voiced plosives are frequently prevoiced and voiceless plosives are unaspirated, while f0 does not differ after the two plosive series. This positional variation suggests that the onset-induced f0 effect is enhanced in word-initial position, where the VOT cue is not sufficient, but not in word-medial position, where the plosive voicing contrast is robustly marked by presence vs. absence of phonetic voicing. The differential use of cues in different environments in Tokyo Japanese provides another piece of evidence for the complexity of phonetic implementations of the voicing contrast. Finally, we discuss the enhancement of f0 perturbations as a source of a potential tonal development and ask whether such a development would take place in Tokyo Japanese.

A phonetic study on how to teach Korean fortis stops to foreign learners in the word-medial position

A phonetic study on how to teach Korean fortis stops to foreign learners in the word-medial position

Prosodically Conditioned Consonant Duration in Djambarrpuyŋu.

Cross-linguistically, segments typically lengthen because of proximity to prosodic events such as intonational phrase or phonological phrase boundaries, a phrasal accent, or due to lexical stress. Australian Indigenous languages have been claimed to operate somewhat differently in terms of prosodically conditioned consonant lengthening and strengthening. Consonants have been found to lengthen after a vowel bearing a phrasal pitch accent. It is further claimed that this post-tonic position is a position of prosodic strength in Australian languages. In this study, we investigate the effects of proximity to a phrasal pitch accent and prosodic constituent boundaries on the duration of stop and nasal consonants in words of varying lengths in Djambarrpuyŋu, an Australian Indigenous language spoken in northeast Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia. Our results suggest that the post-tonic consonant position does not condition longer consonant duration compared with other word-medial consonants, with one exception: Intervocalic post-tonic consonants in disyllabic words are significantly longer than word-medial consonants elsewhere. Therefore, it appears that polysyllabic shortening has a strong effect on segment duration in these data. Word-initial position did not condition longer consonant duration than word-medial position. Further, initial consonants in higher-level prosodic domains had shorter consonant duration compared with domain-medial word-initial consonants. By contrast, domain-final lengthening was observed in our data, with word-final nasals preceding a pause found to be significantly longer than all other consonants. Taken together, these findings for Djambarrpuyŋu suggest that, unlike other Australian languages, post-tonic lengthening is not a cue to prosodic prominence, whereas prosodic domain-initial and -final duration patterns of consonants are like those that have been observed in other languages of the world.

Stop, approximant, and timing slot: The changing faces of the velar stop in Iwaidja

Limited access to speakers and incomplete lexical knowledge are common challenges facing phonetic description of under-documented languages. We address these challenges by taking a multi-dimensional approach, seeking to constrain our phonetic description by covariation across acoustic and articulatory parameters. We demonstrate the approach through an analysis of velar consonsants in the Australian Aboriginal language Iwaidja. Existing accounts contrast a velar stop /k/ with a velar approximant /ɰ/ in word-medial position (Evans 2009). Converging evidence from ultrasound images of the tongue body and acoustic analysis of intensity data reveal that the posited opposition is not consistent across speakers (N = 4) and lexical items. Unsupervised categorization of the phonetic data indicates two phonetic categories, appropriately labelled as [a] and [ɰ], which do not map consistently to dictionary labels in existing descriptions. We conclude that speaker-specific allophonic variation is the result of an ongoing process of lenition of /k/ between sonorant segments which has not yet phonologized. More broadly, integrating phonetic dimensions revealed categories that were ill-defined on the basis of just acoustic or articulatory measures alone. Depth of analysis, characterized by phonetic multi-dimensionality, may support robust generalization where broad analysis (multiple speakers, large corpora) are impractical or impossible.Limited access to speakers and incomplete lexical knowledge are common challenges facing phonetic description of under-documented languages. We address these challenges by taking a multi-dimensional approach, seeking to constrain our phonetic description by covariation across acoustic and articulatory parameters. We demonstrate the approach through an analysis of velar consonsants in the Australian Aboriginal language Iwaidja. Existing accounts contrast a velar stop /k/ with a velar approximant /ɰ/ in word-medial position (Evans 2009). Converging evidence from ultrasound images of the tongue body and acoustic analysis of intensity data reveal that the posited opposition is not consistent across speakers (N = 4) and lexical items. Unsupervised categorization of the phonetic data indicates two phonetic categories, appropriately labelled as [a] and [ɰ], which do not map consistently to dictionary labels in existing descriptions. We conclude that speaker-specific allophonic variation is the result of an ongoi...

Inter- and intra-speaker variability in the production of voiceless nasal consonants

This study uses both acoustic and aerodynamic data to investigate variation in the realization of phonemically voiceless nasal consonants, which have been found to differ cross-linguistically. In particular, it examines the timing of voicing and oral and nasal air flow during production of voiceless nasal consonants in both word-initial and word-medial positions in Hakha Chin, a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in western Burma/Myanmar. Comparing three other Tibeto-Burman languages, Bhaskararao and Ladefoged (1991) found two distinct patterns in the production of voiceless nasal consonants, which varied by language, but reported general consistency among speakers of the same language. Results of the present study show considerable variation in the realization of voiceless nasals, both between individual speakers and even between individual tokens produced by the same speaker. This high degree of variability may be linked to the relatively weak acoustic cues for place of articulation among nasal consonants in general and for voiceless nasals in particular.This study uses both acoustic and aerodynamic data to investigate variation in the realization of phonemically voiceless nasal consonants, which have been found to differ cross-linguistically. In particular, it examines the timing of voicing and oral and nasal air flow during production of voiceless nasal consonants in both word-initial and word-medial positions in Hakha Chin, a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in western Burma/Myanmar. Comparing three other Tibeto-Burman languages, Bhaskararao and Ladefoged (1991) found two distinct patterns in the production of voiceless nasal consonants, which varied by language, but reported general consistency among speakers of the same language. Results of the present study show considerable variation in the realization of voiceless nasals, both between individual speakers and even between individual tokens produced by the same speaker. This high degree of variability may be linked to the relatively weak acoustic cues for place of articulation among nasal consonants in...

Acoustic Analysis of Front Vowels /Ɛ/ and /æ/ in Pakistani Punjabi English

The current research is done for the verification of two different claims. According to Kachru, (2005) that Punjabi English speakers are unable to create distinction between /Ɛ/ and /æ/ front vowels but Bilal et al. (2011) has refused this claim after verifying it in the speech of Punjabi speakers of Sargodha, Pakistan. If Bilal is right than there is a big need to study this claim in broader perspective. Therefore, in the current research, 9720 utterances (of 72 native Punjabi speakers from 12 districts of Punjab, Pakistan) are recorded and analyzed in PRAAT software. Data analysis is done in two steps i.e., (i) auditory analysis is done by listening wave files and (ii) acoustic analysis is based on the measurement of first three formant values (F1, F2, F3) and vowels’ duration. The results clarify that Pakistani Punjabi English speakers have maintained difference in short and long, stressed and unstressed articulation at word initial and medial positions. But the limited number of Lahori Punjabians could not maintain this difference at word medial position only. Consequently, this research highly supports Bilal’s claim in broader perspective but we cannot totally deny Kachru’s claim. Because we have also find traces of /Ɛ/ and /æ/ merger in our data as well and the reason might be the selection of research sample.

Identification of Triphthongs in Pakistani English

The present research deals with the identification of triphthongs in Pakistani English (PakE). A triphthong is the combination of three different vowels. There are five triphthongs in English (Roach, 2009) but those are absent in PakE due to the language variation phenomenon. As, we know that every language has a different lingual approach than the other therefore, if we find any similarity that is just a matter of chance and coincidence nothing else. So, in the current research, it is proposed that the native language, Urdu would affect standard pronunciation or RP in Pakistan. For the confirmation of this hypothesis, two experimental approaches are selected for the identification of triphthongs and their acoustic behavior in PakE. Therefore, sixty Pakistani speakers have been selected as a population of the research. Afterwards their speech has been recorded and analyzed in anechoic chamber. In the first step, the auditory approach has selected which reported varied vocalic segments by using syllable count method. In the second step, for knowing the acoustic behavior, the identified segments have been further investigated in PRAAT software. Then, data analysis and results have confirmed that Urdu influences and transforms the acoustic features of PakE. It is also confirmed that PakE has two triphthongs; (i) /ʊae/ (at word final position) and (ii) /ʊaɪ/ (at word medial position) which are not the part of RP phonetic inventory.

A new test for exemplar theory: Varying versus non-varying words in Spanish

We used a Deese-Roediger-McDermott false memory paradigm to compare Spanish words in which the phonetic realization of /s/ can vary (word-medial positions: bu[s]to ~ bu[h]to ‘chest’, word-final positions: remo[s] ~ remo[h] ‘oars’) to words in which it cannot (word-initial positions: [s]opa ~ *[h]opa ‘soup’). At study, participants listened to lists of nine words that were phonological neighbors of an unheard critical item (e.g., popa, sepa, soja, etc. for the critical item sopa). At test, participants performed free recall and yes/no recognition tasks. Replicating previous work in this paradigm, results showed robust false memory effects: that is, participants were more likely to (falsely) remember a critical item than a random intrusion. When the realization of /s/ was consistent across conditions (Experiment 1), false memory rates for varying versus non-varying words did not significantly differ. However, when the realization of /s/ varied between [s] and [h] in those positions which allow it (Experiment 2), false recognition rates for varying words like busto were significantly higher than those for non-varying words like sopa. Assuming that higher false memory rates are indicative of greater lexical activation, we interpret these results to support the predictions of exemplar theory, which claims that words with heterogeneous versus homogeneous acoustic realizations should exhibit distinct patterns of activation.

A replicable acoustic measure of lenition and the nature of variability in Gurindji stops

An automated method is presented for the commensurable, reproducible measurement of duration and lenition of segment types ranging from fully occluded stops to highly lenited variants, in acoustic data. The method is motivated with respect to the relationship between acoustic and articulatory phonetics and, through subsequent evaluation, is argued to correspond well to articulation. It is then applied to the phonemic stops of casual speech in Gurindji (Pama-Nyungan, Australia) to investigate the nature of their articulatory targets. The degree of stop lenition is found to vary widely. Contrary to expectations, no evidence is found of a positive effect on lenition due to word-medial (relative to word-initial) position, beyond that attributable to duration; nor do non-coronals lenite more than their apical counterparts, which freely lenite along a continuum towards taps. No significant effect is found of preceding or following vocalic environment. Taken together, the observed lenition, duration, and peak intensity velocities are argued to be inconsistent with a single, fully-occluded articulatory ‘stop’ target which is undershot at short durations, rather targets can be understood to span a range or ‘window’ of values in the sense of Keating (1990), from fully-occluded stop-like targets to more approximant-like targets. It is an open question to what degree the patterns found in Gurindji are language particular, or can be related to the organization of obstruent systems in Australian languages more broadly. Precisely comparable studies of additional languages will be especially valuable in addressing these questions and others, and are possible using the method we introduce.

Overweighting of pitch cues in stop identification by Korean learners of Mandarin Chinese

The present study reports on a novel case where learners of a tonal language not only develop keen sensitivity to F0 cues in general, but the increased sensitivity may also foster perceptual reorganization of cue weighting in stop identification. Korean learners of Mandarin and novice listeners participated in identification tasks for which pitch contours of Mandarin words containing unaspirated stops were digitally manipulated. In word-initial position, learners showed considerably higher sensitivity to onset pitch cues, showing a near-categorical perception from lenis to fortis judgment along with higher onset pitch. In word-medial position, tone contours emerged as a significant predictor of the stops; predominant fortis judgment in high-level tone vs. lenis judgment in mid-rising tone. The novice listeners showed similar patterns in both cases, but to a much smaller degree. The effect of tone contours was discussed with reference to an auditory contrast whereby onset pitch of mid-rising tone is percep...

Voiced fricative /z/ in Middle Korean revisited from the perspective of Probabilistic Phonological Relationship Model.

This study investigates intermediate phonological relationships between /s/(ㅅ) and /z/(ㅿ) in Middle Korean from the 15th century to the 16th century. In Middle Korean, the phonological contrast between /s/ and /z/ was complex. In word-medial intervocalic position, /z/ and /s/ are considered to be contrastive. However, in word-initial or word-final position, they are allophonic, so we can predict which of the two segments will occur. I propose that putting /z/ and /s/ into a gradient and probabilistic model provides insight into the phonological relationship between them. The present paper examines the frequencies of /z/, /s/ and other consonants from the 15th to the 16th century to analyze a historical Korean corpus from the perspective of the Probabilistic Phonological Relationship Model (PPRM), measuring the quantitative analysis index of intermediate phonological relationships. Comparing the entropies between /s/ and other consonants with the entropies between /z/ and other consonants, a continuum defined in terms of entropy reveals that /z/ in Middle Korean was more allophonic than phonemic, and it was lost or merged into /s/ in the 16th century.

The role of prosodic structure in the L2 acquisition of Spanish stop lenition

This study tests the hypothesis that late first-language English / second-language Spanish learners (L1 English / L2 Spanish learners) acquire spirantization in stages according to the prosodic hierarchy (Zampini, 1997, 1998). In Spanish, voiced stops [b d g] surface after a pause or nasal stop, and continuants [β̞ ð̞ ɣ̞] surface postvocalically, among other contexts. We adopt an Optimality Theoretic analysis of the phenomenon that assumes that postvocalic continuants surface due to the ranking of prosodic positional faithfulness constraints below a markedness constraint that prohibits stops in postvocalic position. L1 English speakers are presumed to start with a ranking in which prosodic positional faithfulness outranks the markedness constraint. In line with the Gradual Learning Algorithm (Boersma and Hayes, 2001), gradual demotion of the relevant faithfulness constraints is predicted in L2 Spanish, extending the prosodic domain until continuants surface postvocalically across domains. A cross-section of 44 L1 English / L2 Spanish learners and a control group ( n = 5) completed a recitation task, and data were analysed acoustically for manner of articulation and degree of constriction. Results partially align with Zampini’s impressionistic data: Learners first produce underlying stops as postvocalic approximants at the onset of the syllable (word-medial position), followed by the onset of the prosodic word (word-initial position). Unlike Zampini’s findings, there is no evidence for an intermediate stage of acquisition across the boundary of a word and its clitic. Advanced L2 learners produce continuants in postvocalic position at all applicable prosodic levels, which we take to indicate acquisition of the target ranking. We also examined whether learners’ postvocalic continuants are lenited to the same degree as the control group, and whether degree of lenition changes across development. The difference in degree of lenition between controls and learners lessens at higher levels of the prosodic hierarchy as acquisition progresses, and several advanced learners produce target-like segments across prosodic levels.