Strategies in the acquisition of segments and syllables in Russian-speaking children.

Abstract

This study investigates the phonological development of ten children reared in Russian-speaking homes, from the emergence of first words to the age of three years two months. The paper consists of three parts: acquisition of phonemes and phonological oppositions; acoustic analysis of the consonantal opposition in palatalization emerging in children; acquisition of syllable structure of words and different syllable omission patterns. The focus is made on individual strategies adopted by different children. Some data challenge the literature claim about the acquisition of labials before other consonants and the claim about 'trochaic bias' in early word production.