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Syllable duration changes during babbling: a longitudinal study of French infant productions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2020

Mélanie CANAULT ,
Naomi YAMAGUCHI ,
Nikola PAILLEREAU ,
Jennifer KRZONOWSKI ,
Johanna-Pascale ROY ,
Christophe DOS SANTOS  and
Sophie KERN
Mélanie CANAULT*
Affiliation:
Laboratoire Dynamique du Langage, UMR 5596 CNRS, Université Lumière Lyon 2 Institut des Sciences et Techniques de la Réadaptation, 69008Lyon, France
Naomi YAMAGUCHI
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Phonétique et Phonologie, UMR 7018 (Sorbonne-Nouvelle & CNRS), 75005Paris, France
Nikola PAILLEREAU
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Phonétique et Phonologie, UMR 7018 (Sorbonne-Nouvelle & CNRS), 75005Paris, France Institute of Psychology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
Jennifer KRZONOWSKI
Affiliation:
Laboratoire Dynamique du Langage, UMR 5596 CNRS, Université Lumière Lyon 2 Institut des Sciences et Techniques de la Réadaptation, 69008Lyon, France
Johanna-Pascale ROY
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de phonétique - Département de langues, linguistique et traduction - Université Laval – Quebec, Canada
Christophe DOS SANTOS
Affiliation:
UMR 1253, iBrain, Université de Tours, Inserm, Tours, France
Sophie KERN
Affiliation:
Laboratoire Dynamique du Langage, UMR 5596 CNRS, Université Lumière Lyon 2 Institut des Sciences et Techniques de la Réadaptation, 69008Lyon, France
*
*Corresponding author: Mélanie Canault, Laboratoire Dynamique du Langage – Maison des Sciences de l'Homme 14, av. Berthelot 69363 Lyon Cedex 7 / France. E-mail: melanie.canault@univ-lyon1.fr
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Abstract

At the babbling stage, the syllable does not have the temporal characteristics of adult syllables because of the infant's limited oro-motor skills. This research aims to further our knowledge of syllable duration and temporal variability and their evolution with age as an indicator of the development of articulatory skills. The possible impact of syllable position, as well as that of type of intrasyllabic associations and intersyllabic articulatory changes on these parameters has also been tested. Oral productions of 22 French infants were recorded monthly from 8 to 14 months. 11 261 Consonant-Vowel (CV) syllables were annotated and temporally analyzed. The mean duration varied according to syllable position, but not to the intrasyllabic or intersyllabic articulatory changes. Moreover, the syllable duration decreased significantly from the age of 10 months onwards, whereas the temporal variability remained the same.

Keywords

babblingoro-motor abilitiessyllabledurationtemporal variability
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 47 , Issue 6 , November 2020 , pp. 1207 - 1227
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2020

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