Acquisition of Polish #sC clusters in typically-developing children and children with phonological disorders

Abstract

This study investigated the development of Polish #sC clusters (word-initial /s/+ consonant clusters) in typically-developing children and in children with phonological disorders. Data from 49 Polish-speaking children were analysed in terms of correct and incorrect productions, possible groupings according to the sonority index and the continuancy of the second member of the cluster. While a great deal of variability occurred both within and across children, a number of general findings are indicative of the roles of language-specific vs language-universal factors. For correctness of productions, sonority distance between the members of the cluster did not affect accuracy. In contrast, for the reduction of the targets, the continuancy of the second member played a significant role. Results give support to language-specific patterns in correctness of realizations but follow the universal patterns in reduction.

Keywords::

• Phonological acquisition
• /s/ clusters
• Polish
• sonority
• typical speech acquisition
• phonology

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the children who participated in this study and to Professor Katarzyna Dziubalska-Kolaczyk, Daria Zielinska, Barbara Borowik, Andrzej Grzybowski, MD, PhD MBA for their help and cooperation in data collection. Our thanks also go to Dr Paulette Johnson of Florida International University for the statistical analysis. Last, but not least, thanks go to the two anonymous reviewers of this journal whose suggestions made this paper more comprehensible and clear.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.