Stop contrast acquisition in child Kriol: Evidence of stable transmission of phonology post Creole formation

J Child Lang. 2023 Jul 26:1-37. doi: 10.1017/S0305000923000430. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTMany Aboriginal Australian communities are undergoing language shift from traditional Indigenous languages to contact varieties such as Kriol, an English-lexified Creole. Kriol is reportedly characterised by lexical items with highly variable phonological specifications, and variable implementation of voicing and manner contrasts in obstruents (Sandefur, 1986). A language, such as Kriol, characterised by this unusual degree of variability presents Kriol-acquiring children with a potentially difficult language-learning task, and one which challenges the prevalent theories of acquisition. To examine stop consonant acquisition in this unusual language environment, we present a study of Kriol stop and affricate production, followed by a mispronunciation detection study, with Kriol-speaking children (ages 4-7) from a Northern Territory community where Kriol is the lingua franca. In contrast to previous claims, the results suggest that Kriol-speaking children acquire a stable phonology and lexemes with canonical phonemic specifications, and that English experience would not appear to induce this stability.PMID:37493012 | DOI:10.1017/S0305000923000430
Source: Journal of Child Language - Category: Speech-Language Pathology Authors: Source Type: research