Abstract
Consonants and distinctive features used by 181 Cantonese-speaking children with phonological disorder were analyzed and fitted to a phonetic implicational hierarchy. Fifty four per cent of the children were classified as delayed, and the remaining 46% as disordered/deviant. The latter were phonological systems that failed to match any level of the implicational hierarchy. Of the disordered children, 89% of their system deficits were attributable to just two distinctive features, [coronal] and [delayed release]. The uses of an implicational hierarchy for diagnosis are explored. The children's systems were also described according to a measure of consonant complexity, Percentage of Consonants Correct. A modified PCC is introduced, separating initial and final consonants in the calculation. The severity of disorder, according to PCC, is related to the categorisation of delay vs. disorder/deviance. Further analysis of phonotactic constraints in the classification of English phonological disorders is recommended.