From phonetics to phonology: The emergence of first words in Italian

• Published in: Journal of child language Vol. 36; no. 2; pp. 235 - 267
• Main Authors: KEREN-PORTNOY, TAMAR, MAJORANO, MARINELLA, VIHMAN, MARILYN M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.03.2009
• Subjects: Age; Age of onset; Biological and medical sciences; Child Development; Child Language; Child, Preschool; Children; Children & youth; Consonants; Developmental psychology; Female; Foreign Countries; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Individual Differences; Infant; Infants; Italian; Italian language; Italy; Language; Language Development; Linguistics; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Newborn. Infant; Onset (Phonology); Phonemes; Phonetics; Phonology; Phonology phonetics relationship; Production and perception of spoken language; Profiles; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Skills; Studies; Verbal Behavior; Verbal Learning; Videotape Recording; Vocabulary Development; Italy; Human; Italian; Word; Language; Sound production; Follow up study; Lexicon; Language development; Phonetics; Infant; Phonology
• ISSN: 0305-0009; 1469-7602
• DOI: 10.1017/S0305000908008933

This study assesses the extent of phonetic continuity between babble and words in four Italian children followed longitudinally from 0 ; 9 or 0 ; 10 to 2 ; 0 – two with relatively rapid and two with slower lexical growth. Prelinguistic phonetic characteristics, including both (a) consistent use of specific consonants and (b) age of onset and extent of consonant variegation in babble, are found to predict rate of lexical advance and to relate to the form of the early words. In addition, each child's lexical profile is analyzed to test the hypothesis of non-linearity in phonological development. All of the children show the expected pattern of phonological advance: Relatively accurate first word production is followed by lexical expansion, characterized by a decrease in accuracy and an increase of similarity between word forms. We interpret such a profile as reflecting the emergence of word templates, a first step in phonological organization.