Charlie Hunt
Professor Weinhold
S.H.S. 250
11/19/2012
S.H.S. 250 Final Semester Project
The amount of progress Arielle displayed in her word pronunciation is evident through her early phonological development. Arielle’s development is typical of most young toddlers as they are most likely to repeat consonant-vowel syllables. This pattern is known as reduplication and it is exhibited in many of Arielle’s pronunciations. For example, her pronunciation of “grammy” as [mi!m8] displays this pattern. However, as she progresses with her pronunciation, she begins to use multiple vowels within words. Arielle’s pronunciation of “grammy” as [d:em8] and [j:w{qm8] displays her progression from reduplicating consonant-vowel syllables to using multiple vowels between syllables. Therefore, Arielle is beginning to understand the difference in vowels as well as using them interchangeably in speech production.
Regarding the various word types, Arielle is creating substitutions of initial and final consonants, as well as distortion of final consonants. Although Arielle does acquire some of the correct consonants and vowels, her pronunciation represents only a partial portion of these correct word pronunciations. Her production of the word “car” as [te[ᵂ] (23 months), [te]] (27 months), and [te]Y] (38 months) clearly represents a substitution of [t] for [k]. This is clearly evident in the fact that younger children have difficulty producing sounds that are farther back in the oral cavity. Thus, Arielle exhibits fronting due to her producing a [t] rather than [k] which is easier to produce. Another process Arielle exhibits is final consonant deletion. In words as “truck” with multiple consonant blends, she omits the final consonant [k] and instead produces [trK4SQ]. In this example, she lengthens the final portion of the word rather than producing the final consonant. This is also the case in Arielle’s pronunciation of “ball” [b9QuW] and “hat” [heS=] though she begins to...