Allophonic and Phonemic Contrasts in Infants' Learning of Sound Patterns

French-learning 11-month-old and English-learning 11- and 4-month-old infants were familiarized with consonant-vowel-consonant syllables in which the final consonants were dependent on whether the preceding vowel was oral or nasal. Oral and nasal vowels are present in the ambient language of all par...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Language learning and development 2009-06, Vol.5 (3), p.191-202
Main Authors: Seidl, A., Cristià, A., Bernard, A., Onishi, K. H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Babies
English language
French language
Language acquisition
Learning
Phonetics
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Summary:French-learning 11-month-old and English-learning 11- and 4-month-old infants were familiarized with consonant-vowel-consonant syllables in which the final consonants were dependent on whether the preceding vowel was oral or nasal. Oral and nasal vowels are present in the ambient language of all participants, but vowel nasality is phonemic (contrastive) in French and allophonic (noncontrastive) in English. After familiarization, infants heard novel syllables that either followed or violated the familiarized patterns. French-learning 11-month-olds and English-learning 4-month-olds displayed a reliable pattern of preference demonstrating learning and generalization of the patterns, while English-learning 11-month-olds oriented equally to syllables following and violating the familiarized patterns. The results are consistent with an experience-driven reduction of attention to allophonic contrasts by as early as 11 months, which influences phonotactic learning.
ISSN:1547-5441
1547-3341
DOI:10.1080/15475440902754326