Covert Contrast in Acquiring Fricatives by Preschool Children: Evidence From Najdi Arabic

Eman Altoeriqi and Mohammad Aljutaily

SAGE Open, 2023, vol. 13, issue 4, 21582440231211688

Abstract: Covert contrast is the statistically reliable distinction between target language phonemes produced in the process of language acquisition that is nevertheless not perceived by a native speaker of that language. This paper examines the acquisition of contrasts in four Najdi Arabic fricatives, /s/, /ʃ/, /θ/, and /ð/, and seeks to identify the most common substitutions in producing these sounds. Words were elicited from 25 preschool children (aged 3–5 years). The target words contained the studied fricative followed by either long /a:/ or short /a/ in the initial position. Praat software was used for acoustic analysis to extract the four acoustic cues: center of gravity, fricative noise duration, F1, and F2. Participants performed a word repetition task and a picture elicitation task. The results showed six cases of covert contrast, seven cases of no contrast, and 87 cases of accurate production (overt contrast). The results also revealed stopping, gliding, and affrication as substitutions in the manner of articulation, while replacement in place of articulation occurred in backing but most commonly in fronting (24 cases). The present study sought to determine implications for children’s linguistic performance, and, consequently, for language education and for planning treatment for children with speech disorders.

Keywords: Covert contrast; overt contrast; acquisition; center of gravity; child; Arabic fricatives (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/21582440231211688 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:sagope:v:13:y:2023:i:4:p:21582440231211688

DOI: 10.1177/21582440231211688

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in SAGE Open
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().