Patterns of acquisition of native voice onset time in English-learning children

ABSTRACTDiscrimination of synthetically produced stimuli differing along the voice onset time continuum was assessed for infants and adults within the context of the Visually Reinforced Infant Speech Discrimination (VRISD) paradigm. English-learning infants' discrimination abilities were compared with two groups of English-speaking adults (a phonetically naive and a phonetically sophisticated group). Contrary to the predictions of the innateness hypothesis, English-learning infants showed evidence of discrimination only across the English phoneme boundary. Adults, on the other hand, were very successful in discriminating both across and within a range of phoneme boundaries. These results are discussed in terms of the presumed relationship between categorical perception and linguistic processing and in terms of synthetic speech continua.

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The acquisition of voice onset time by English‐learning infants

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America ◽

10.1121/1.4782390 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 115 (5) ◽

pp. 2465-2465

Author(s):

Joanna H. Lowenstein ◽

Susan Nittrouer

Keyword(s):

Voice Onset Time ◽

Onset Time ◽

English Learning

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The acquisition of voicing contrasts in Spanish and English learning infants and children: a longitudinal study

Journal of Child Language ◽

10.1017/s0305000900005791 ◽

1984 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 313-336 ◽

Cited By ~ 27

Author(s):

Rebecca E. Eilers ◽

D. Kimbrough Oller ◽

Carmen R. Benito-Garcia

Keyword(s):

English Learners ◽

Voice Onset Time ◽

Onset Time ◽

English Learning ◽

Stop Consonants ◽

Significant Evidence ◽

Place Of Articulation ◽

Significant Difference ◽

One Year ◽

English Group

ABSTRACTThe production of voice-onset time (VOT) was studied in a group of Spanish- and English-learning subjects at 1 and 2 years of age. Voice-onset time of initial stop consonants from canonical utterances was measured oscillographically. At one year no significant difference in VOT production was found between Spanish and English learners at any place of articulation. Mean VOT values for infants fell in the short lag range. By two years, four of the seven children in the English group and four of the children in the Spanish group showed significant evidence of having acquired the VOT distinction in stop consonants appropriate for their native language.

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Event-Related Potentials to an English/Spanish Syllabic Contrast in Mexican 10–13-Month-Old Infants

ISRN Neurology ◽

10.5402/2012/702986 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 2012 ◽

pp. 1-9 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Maritza Rivera-Gaxiola ◽

Adrian Garcia-Sierra ◽

Lourdes Lara-Ayala ◽

Cesar Cadena ◽

Donna Jackson-Maldonado ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Voice Onset Time ◽

Native Language ◽

Onset Time ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Event Related Potential ◽

English Learning ◽

Auditory Event ◽

Electrophysiological Responses ◽

Related Potentials ◽

The Impact

We report brain electrophysiological responses from 10- to 13-month-old Mexican infants while listening to native and foreign CV-syllable contrasts differing in Voice Onset Time (VOT). All infants showed normal auditory event-related potential (ERP) components. Our analyses showed ERP evidence that Mexican infants are capable of discriminating their native sounds as well as the acoustically salient (aspiration) foreign contrast. The study showed that experience with native language influences VOT perception in Spanish learning infants. The acoustic salience of aspiration is perceived by both Spanish and English learning infants, but exposure provides additional phonetic status to this native-language feature for English learning infants. The effects of early experience and neural commitment as well as the impact of acoustic salience are further discussed.

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