Children’s Acquisition of Segmental Duration in Different Consonantal Contexts

The current study examined English-speaking children’s acquisition of segmental duration as a function of voicing contrast in the coda position. The purpose of the study was designed to investigate the difference in children’s and adult’s production of vowel and consonantal duration to better understand children’s development of temporal patterns. The effects of coda voicing and the number of syllables on absolute and relative vowel and consonant durations were explored. Children produced significantly longer segmental durations in absolute terms. However, the relative timing patterns of vowels before voiced and voiceless stops did not differ between the adult and child groups. The consonant closure duration appeared to take longer for children to acquire the adult-like performance in voicing contrast. Together with adult-like temporal patterns found in children’s vowel productions and a less refined level of motor control shown in children’s consonant duration suggest children’s phonological knowledge on the relative timing of sequential segments despite some evidence of oral-motor constraints.