A Population Study of Children's Acquisition of Hong Kong Cantonese Consonants, Vowels, and Tones

Autor/inn/en	To, Carol K. S.; Cheung, Pamela S. P.; McLeod, Sharynne
Titel	A Population Study of Children's Acquisition of Hong Kong Cantonese Consonants, Vowels, and Tones
Quelle	In: Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 56 (2013) 1, S.103-122 (20 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1092-4388
DOI	10.1044/1092-4388(2012/11-0080)
Schlagwörter	Foreign Countries; Children; Language Acquisition; Sino Tibetan Languages; Vowels; Phonemes; Phonology; Statistical Analysis; Age Differences; Gender Differences; Phonetics; Articulation (Speech); Hong Kong + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ausland; Child; Kind; Kinder; Sprachaneignung; Spracherwerb; Fonem; Fonologie; Statistische Analyse; Age; Difference; Age difference; Altersunterschied; Geschlechterkonflikt; Phonetik; Fonetik; Hongkong
Abstract	Purpose: This study investigated children's acquisition of Hong Kong Cantonese. Method: Participants were 1,726 children ages 2;4 to 12;4 (years;months). Single-word speech samples were collected to examine 4 measures: initial consonants, final consonants, vowels/diphthongs, and lexical tones. A 2-way analysis of variance was performed to examine the effects of age and sex on phoneme acquisition. Results: There was rapid acquisition of initial consonants from age 2;6 to age 4;6. All 19 initial consonants were acquired by age 6;0 (90% criterion): /p-/, /m-/, and /j-/ were acquired the earliest; the last were /ts [superscript h]-/ and /s-/. Final consonants had a different acquisition time from their initial counterparts. Vowels were acquired by age 5;0 and diphthongs by age 4;0. All 9 tones were acquired by age 2;6. The main effect of age was significant for all 4 measures, whereas sex was significant for all measures except tone. Common phonological patterns (greater than or equal to 10%) for initial consonants were stopping, fronting, deaspiration, delabialization, affrication, and nasalization; patterns with 5.0%-9.9% occurrence were backing, deaffrication, gliding, and dentalization. Conclusions: The acquisition of Cantonese showed similarities with English acquisition yet also had specific characteristics. Factors that contributed to the acquisition rate were functional load, articulatory ease, consonant-vowel interactions, phonetic variations, and the behavior of vowels and their allophones. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). 10801 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852. Tel: 800-638-8255; Fax: 301-571-0457; e-mail: subscribe@asha.org; Web site: http://jslhr.asha.org
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10