Vocalic lengthening in /R/ and in /S/ medial coda acquisition: Data from a phonological
acquisition study of Brazilian Portuguese
Profa. Dra. Irani Rodrigues Maldonade
(STATE UNIVERSITY OF CAMPINAS – FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF SANTA MARIA)
BRAZIL
[email protected]
INTRODUCTION: In normal language
acquisition, the phonological system is
spontaneously acquired by children until
4/5 years old. The syllabic structure (C)VC
has later appearance, after V and CV, not
only in Brazilian Portuguese as well as in
other Languages. The omission of
consonants (fricative, /S/ and/or nonlateral liquid, /R/) in medial coda position
is high frequent in (C)VC syllabic
structure, in portuguese phonological
acquisition, as well as in children with
phonological disorders. According to
percentual
analysis,
there
is
no
intermediate stage from the omission to
their appearance. However, quite a
different picture was delineated after the
acoustic analysis results.
The
vocalic
lengthening
is
an
increase in the duration of the
nuclear vowel, which preserves the
temporal unity of the closed syllable
by the fulfillment of the coda's time.
The vocalic lengthening is not distintive
in portuguese. So, it’s not easy to detect
it spontaneously in normal conversation.
HYPOTHESIS: Children that present the
vowel lengthening demonstrate to know
the (C)VC structure and, for this reason,
can be closer to the target-phonemes
emergence than those who omit.
OBJECTIVE: 1) to investigate the vowel
lengthening
occurrence
in
typical
portuguese phonological development, or
in other words, in children that doesn't
have the /R/ and /S/ medial codas yet.
2- characterise the vowel lengthening in
both types of coda in portuguese
phonological acquisition.
METHOD:
The speech of 80 children (40 boys and
40 girls) was recorded and splitt in 5
different ranges of age from 13 to 41
months. The records were carried out at
Federal University of Santa Maria’s
(UFSM)
Kindergarten
and
then
transcribed.
From the sample, it was selected pairs of
words that contrast (C)VC X CV syllables,
which were submitted to the acoustic
analysis using PRAAT’s software (version
4.4.16), in order to measure the vowels
duration.
The duration's time of each vowel in
milliseconds (ms) was obtained by
measuring the wave sound from the
beginning to the end of the formants.
According to the criterion of the research,
a vowel was considered lengthened when
the duration value of the vowel in (C)VC
was up to 40 ms compared to the value of
the vowel in CV.
RESULTS:
1) Percentage of vocalic lengthening: 58,75% (Yes) x 41,25% (No)
2) Types of lengthening:
3) Vowel lengthening in /R/ coda
Lengthening and not-lengthening is statistically significant. In relation to the precedent
consonantal phoneme to the vowel lengthening, it was verified that /p/
occurred 21, 80%, followed by /v/(17,29%), /k/(16,54%). The most frequent
lengthened vowels were: /a/(33,08%), /e/ (22,56%, /o/ (18,05%), /‫כ‬/
(15,04%), /i/(6,77%) and /u/(4,51%)
ranges of age:
1=
2=
3=
4=
5=
from
from
from
from
from
13
18
24
30
36
to
to
to
to
to
17
23
29
35
41
months
months
months
months
months
4) Vowel lengthening in /S/ coda
Lengthening and not-lengthening is not statistically significant. In relation to the precedent
consonantal phoneme to the vowel lengthening, it was verified that /p/and /g/ occurred in
36,84%, followed by the case that there is no phoneme (10,53%), and /k/, /d/, /r/
(5,26%). The most frequent lengthened vowels were: /o/ (42,11%), /‫כ‬/ (36,81%), /e/
(10,53%), /a/ and /i/ (5,26%). It was not registred the lengthening with /ε/ and /u/.
CONCLUSIONS:
The acoustic analysis showed that children distinguish (C)VC from
CV by the vowel lengthening.
The vowel lengthening occurred more in /R/coda than /S/.
The vocalic lengthening did not occur until 17 months. It was
observed between 18 and 23 months for the two types of codas, and
it was also the range age of higher concentration to /S/ coda. Now
it’s possible to know when to expect the vowel lengthening in /R/
and /S/ medial coda acquisition or even it may indicate a retard
in the development.
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