A Comparison of the Production of /t/ sounds in Child-Directed vs. Adult-Directed Speech
Mentor 1
Jae Yung Song
Mentor 2
Robin Fritche
Location
Union Wisconsin Room
Start Date
5-4-2019 1:30 PM
End Date
5-4-2019 3:30 PM
Description
While much research has been conducted on the relationship between a mother’s use of different phonemes (separate sounds that change the meaning of the word) and who she is speaking to, adult or child, little research exists on a mother’s use of allophones (systematic variations of a phoneme that do not change the meaning of the word as in). The present study compares a mother’s use of certain allophones of the alveolar stop /t/ in the presence of her child versus the presence of another adult. To study this, 13 mothers were recorded twice, once to an adult and once to their children, reading two pre-written stories containing a high amount of selected target words. The recordings were analyzed in the audio analysis program Praat for four patterns of /t/ allophones: use of glottalization (as in button), use of flaps (as in water), release of word-final /t/ (as in cat), and duration of aspiration of the word-initial /t/ (as in star). Current analysis shows that there is little to no correlation between a mother’s use of flaps, aspiration, or releases and the presence of her child. However, glottal stops were found to be used significantly less often in child-directed speech in favor of fully pronouncing the /t/. These results could aid in understanding the ways mothers’ speech patterns change in the presence of children, as well as how children develop speech patterns through influence of their mothers.
A Comparison of the Production of /t/ sounds in Child-Directed vs. Adult-Directed Speech
Union Wisconsin Room
While much research has been conducted on the relationship between a mother’s use of different phonemes (separate sounds that change the meaning of the word) and who she is speaking to, adult or child, little research exists on a mother’s use of allophones (systematic variations of a phoneme that do not change the meaning of the word as in). The present study compares a mother’s use of certain allophones of the alveolar stop /t/ in the presence of her child versus the presence of another adult. To study this, 13 mothers were recorded twice, once to an adult and once to their children, reading two pre-written stories containing a high amount of selected target words. The recordings were analyzed in the audio analysis program Praat for four patterns of /t/ allophones: use of glottalization (as in button), use of flaps (as in water), release of word-final /t/ (as in cat), and duration of aspiration of the word-initial /t/ (as in star). Current analysis shows that there is little to no correlation between a mother’s use of flaps, aspiration, or releases and the presence of her child. However, glottal stops were found to be used significantly less often in child-directed speech in favor of fully pronouncing the /t/. These results could aid in understanding the ways mothers’ speech patterns change in the presence of children, as well as how children develop speech patterns through influence of their mothers.
