On The Complementary Nature Of Consonant And Vowel Harmony In Child And Adult Language

Abstract

There is an intriguing complementary distribution of phonological harmony in child and adult language. Whereas vowel harmony is frequently, and consonant harmony rarely, found in fully-developed phonologies, the opposite is true of developing phonologies. This contrast materializes in the face of a long list of similarities suggesting that harmony in child and adult language is essentially the same process. The following three factors are shown to have a bearing on phonological harmony—ease of articulation, ease of programming and distinctiveness. Ease of programming is claimed to facilitate harmony in general, ease of articulation to favour consonant harmony and distinctiveness to favour vowel harmony. Because the production of consonants requires more highly developed motor skills than that of vowels, children tend to resort to consonant harmony. Because ease of articulation plays a limited role in adult language, the bias introduced by distinctiveness unfolds itself in unrestrained fashion and occasions vowel harmony in adult phonologies.