A Re-examination of the Sound Omission-Preliminary Considerations

Abstract

Post-vocalic omissions of /&thetas;/, ltl and /I/, by five articulatory defective children between four and six years of age were examined. Sound clusters designated as C 1 V and C 1 VC 2 where the C2 portion was perceived to be omitted were compared spectrographically. A stop-gap was observed when l&thetas;l and ltl were perceived to have been omitted while a /w/-glide appeared in words from which / I / was omitted.The possibility that these alterations served a constrastive function was discussed. It was concluded that sound omissions serve a linguistic function and should be examined when making decisions concerning an individual's sound system.