Recent evidence shows that children reach expected basic linguistic milestones in two rural Indigenous communities, Tseltal and Yélî Dnye, despite infrequent exposure to child-directed speech. However, those results were partly based on vocal maturity measures that are fairly robust to environmental variation, e.g. the onset of babbling. Directed speech input has been traditionally linked to lexical development, which is by contrast environmentally sensitive. We investigate the relation between child-directed speech and early phonological development in these two communities, focusing on a phonological benchmark that links children’s pre-lexical and early lexical development: the production of consonants. We find that, while Tseltal and Yélî children’s canonical babble onset align with previously attested patterns, their early consonant acquisition shows some divergence from prior expectations. These preliminary results suggest that early consonant production may demonstrate greater environmental sensitivity than canonical babble, possibly via similar mechanisms that link linguistic input and lexical development.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.