Phonology

• Child language research into the development of phonemes in English suggests some general points about the place of articulation (in the front or the back of the mouth) and the manner of articulation (plosive or fricative).
• Consonant sounds can be categorized as front consonants (b, d, p, t) which come before back consonants (g, k), plosives (b, d, g, k, p, t) which come before fricatives (f, s, sh, v, z), plosives at the beginning of a word (book) come before those at the end (boo k), and fricatives at the end of a word (Louise) come before those at the beginning (Spike).
• Consonant clusters are often reduced to one consonant (granma = jamma), and consonant clusters at the end of a word (orange) come before those at the beginning (green).
• Plosives are sounds like p, b, t, d, k, g, which are all ‘explosions’, created when we obstruct the flow of air by bringing parts of the mouth together, then letting go suddenly.
• Gutterals are sounds like g and k, which are harsh sounds produced at the back of our throat.
• Fricatives are sounds like f, v, th, s, z, sh, h, which are created through making a lesser obstruction than for plosives, where air is forced through in a steady stream.
• Nasals are sounds like m, n, ng, mn, which are made by blocking air in the mouth and releasing sound through the nose.
• Laterals are sounds like l, which are made by releasing air past the sides of the tongue while making a block in the middle.
• Deletion is a phenomenon where phonemes, or syllables, are deleted.
• Substitution is a phenomenon where a simpler, often easier to articulate, phoneme is used in place of a more complex one.
• Consonant cluster reduction is a phenomenon where consonants are omitted, for example, ‘my friend’ becomes ‘my fend’.
• Phoneme addition is a phenomenon where a child adds a phoneme, often to aid pronunciation, for example, ‘blue’ becomes ‘belu’.
• ‘Th fronting’ is a phenomenon where a child substitutes the fricative consonant cluster ‘th’ with the easier to pronounce fricative ‘f’.
• Reduplcation is a phenomenon where a phoneme is repeated, for example, moo-moo, ma-ma.
• Assimilation is a phenomenon where one consonant in a word is changed because of the influence of another, for example, ‘tub’ becomes ‘bub’.
• Unstressed syllables being deleted is a phenomenon where syllables are deleted, for example, ‘a pretend story’ becomes a ‘pen story’.
• Age 2½: all vowels and 2/3 of consonants have been mastered.
• Age 4: difficulty with only a few consonants.
• Age 6-7: confident use of all consonants.