Predicting the Age of Emergence of Consonants

Abstract

Models of phonological acquisition must account for ambient language effects and the articulatory complexity (AC) of speech. There are, however, very limited assets that allow researchers of under-resourced languages to analyse the effect of predictors such as ambient frequency (AF), functional load (FL) and AC on the age of emergence (AoE) of phonemes. This paper describes the development of a new open access resource, the Preditores da Aquisição de Consoantes (PAC) database, which allows the exploration of these issues for European Portuguese (EP) and comparing the results with a typologically unrelated language, Tunisian Arabic (TA). Novel AC, AF, and FL values were calculated for EP and TA consonant inventories. The AoE was estimated using multiple regression models, with results showing the AC predictor had the largest effect in both languages, with AoE values within the ranges previously reported for typically developing monolingual children.