Syllable duration changes during babbling: a longitudinal study of French infant productions

At the babbling stage, the syllable does not have the temporal characteristics of adult syllables because of the infant's limited oro-motor skills. This research aims to further our knowledge of syllable duration and temporal variability and their evolution with age as an indicator of the devel...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of child language 2020-11, Vol.47 (6), p.1207-1227
Main Authors: CANAULT, Mélanie, YAMAGUCHI, Naomi, PAILLEREAU, Nikola, KRZONOWSKI, Jennifer, ROY, Johanna-Pascale, DOS SANTOS, Christophe, KERN, Sophie
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age Differences
Articulation (Speech)
Babies
Female
Foreign Countries
French
French language
Humanities and Social Sciences
Humans
Infant
Infant vocalization
Infants
Language Acquisition
Language Development
Linguistics
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Motor ability
Motor Skills
Native language acquisition
Oral Language
Phonemes
Phonetics
Psychomotor Skills
Speech
Spoken language
Syllables
Vowels
Young Children
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:At the babbling stage, the syllable does not have the temporal characteristics of adult syllables because of the infant's limited oro-motor skills. This research aims to further our knowledge of syllable duration and temporal variability and their evolution with age as an indicator of the development of articulatory skills. The possible impact of syllable position, as well as that of type of intrasyllabic associations and intersyllabic articulatory changes on these parameters has also been tested. Oral productions of 22 French infants were recorded monthly from 8 to 14 months. 11 261 Consonant-Vowel (CV) syllables were annotated and temporally analyzed. The mean duration varied according to syllable position, but not to the intrasyllabic or intersyllabic articulatory changes. Moreover, the syllable duration decreased significantly from the age of 10 months onwards, whereas the temporal variability remained the same.
ISSN:0305-0009
1469-7602
DOI:10.1017/S030500092000015X