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Acoustic analysis of words produced by a child from 46 to 149 weeks*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Molly Mack  and
Philip Lieberman
Molly Mack
Affiliation:
Brown University
Philip Lieberman
Affiliation:
Brown University
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Abstract

We undertook a detailed computer-implemented acoustic analysis of the speech of a child from 46 to 149 weeks. We measured overall word duration and pitch perturbation (a measure of task-induced stress), in addition to measuring within-word phonetic segments. Results revealed that (1) there were strong age-dependent decreases in word duration but only at a relatively late stage (75–149 weeks); (2) degree of fluency was not correlated with vocal stress; (3) certain segments (i.e. /k/ and /æ/) increased greatly in duration, contributing to the absence of an overall word-duration decrease at an earlier stage (46–79 weeks) and revealing the child's ability to approximate adult-like phonetic norms. Relevance to theories of phonetic development and language change are discussed.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 12 , Issue 3 , October 1985 , pp. 527 - 550
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

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