An Account of Child English Phonology

Abstract

Children’s production of speech at the early stage of language development is characterized with children’s erroneous pronunciation that results from simplification and reduction of speech sounds and their sequences. This article treats this issue in two folds. First, it discusses a possible explanation on children’s speech production pattern on the basis of the notion of sonority hierarchy. Most of the previous studies in child phonology focused on the ease of articulation in association with simplification and reduction. But I argue that auditory distance must be considered as a potential factor of English-acquiring children’s characteristic sound patterns, pointing out that sonority hierarchy could play a crucial role. Second, well-know examples of child English phonology are analyzed in terms of non-linear phonology. In doing so, it will be shown that English-acquiring children’s speech data at the earliest stage of language development include assimilation, deletion, reduction, and/or substitution, which are nicely described and explained under non-linear phonology.