Word-initial rhotic clusters in Spanish-speaking preschoolers in Chile and Granada, Spain

ABSTRACT

The current paper describes Spanish acquisition of rhotic onset clusters. Data are also provided on related singleton taps/trills and /l/ as a singleton and in clusters. Participants included 9 typically developing (TD) toddlers and 30 TD preschoolers in Chile, and 30 TD preschoolers and 29 with protracted phonological development (PPD) in Granada, Spain. Results showed age and developmental group effects. Preservation of cluster timing units preceded segmental accuracy, especially in stressed syllables. Tap clusters versus singleton trills were variable in order of mastery, some children mastering clusters first, and others, the trill. Rhotics were acquired later than /l/. In early development, mismatches (errors) involved primarily deletion of taps; where substitutions occurred, [j] frequently replaced tap. In later development, [l] more frequently replaced tap; where taps did occur, vowel epenthesis sometimes occurred. The data serve as a criterion reference database for onset cluster acquisition in Chilean and Granada Spanish.

KEYWORDS:

• Consonant clusters
• lateral
• mismatch patterns
• protracted phonological development
• Spanish dialects
• typical phonological development

Declaration of interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest in these studies.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the children, families and preschool centres for participating in this research on Chilean and Granada Spanish.

Funding

Thank you also for funding by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada grant 410-2009-0348, the Programa FONDECYT de la Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica CONICYT 111506578 [National Commission for Scientific and Technological Investigation] in Chile and the Junta de Andalucía in Spain, Grupo Hum-605, Logopedia Experimental y Aplicada [Experimental and applied speech-language pathology].

Notes

¹ Codas are optional in Granada, with either full deletion or appearance of [h]/[^h] (the latter for fricatives). Chile has a similar pattern for coda /s/.

² [ŋ] occurs allophonically before velars.

³ { } indicates optional pronunciations.

⁴ Timing Unit indicates the phonological timing slot for each segment in a word. Timing Units can be preserved with phones that match the adult target or substitutions, e.g. /kru(s)/ > [kju] is a Timing Unit Match because both elements of the cluster are present, even if the second is a substitution.

⁵ See phonodevelopment.sites.olt.ubc.ca, Test Materials/Spanish, for an updated version of the test.

⁶ Whole Word Match indicates the proportion of words that match the adult targets phonetically, slight deviations in voicing, dentalization or vowel quality excepted. Test statistics comparing WWM in each age group supported the final TD/PPD division: U = .3416, 3.97, and 3.633 for ages 3, 4 and 5 respectively, p < .001, r = .828 for 3-year-olds; .86 for both 4- and 5-year-olds.

Additional information

Funding

Thank you also for funding by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada grant 410-2009-0348, the Programa FONDECYT de la Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica CONICYT 111506578 [National Commission for Scientific and Technological Investigation] in Chile and the Junta de Andalucía in Spain, Grupo Hum-605, Logopedia Experimental y Aplicada [Experimental and applied speech-language pathology].