Accounting for variability in 2-year-olds’ production of coda consonants. Language Learning and Development

One of the challenges in child language research is determining when children have acquired a particular linguistic structure, and of particular interest is the identifica-tion of factors that contribute to variable performance. The purpose of the current study is to better understand the mechanisms underlying children’s variable produc-tion of syllable-final (coda) consonants (e.g., moon). Fifteen 2-year-olds were asked to imitate novel words of different phonological shapes. Production accuracy was as-sessed by comparing coda consonant production in stressed versus unstressed sylla-bles, in word-medial versus word-final syllables, in monosyllabic versus bisyllabic words, and also stop codas versus nasal codas. Children were most accurate at pro-ducing codas in monosyllables, and least likely to produce codas in medial un-stressed syllables, with no systematic segmental effects. Because existing data cast doubt on purely perceptual accounts of the role of acoustic prominence, we argue that the longer durations of acoustically prominent syllables provide learners with more time to articulate coda consonants, thereby enhancing production accuracy. This arti-cle concludes with a discussion of the larger implications of variability in phonologi-cal development. One of the longstanding issues in the study of language development has been how to handle within-speaker variability. Previous research has shown significant within-child variability in early word productions (e.g., Vihman, 1993). For exam-ple, the same child may produce some word-final (coda) consonants but not other