Vocal sharing in children’s peer groups: when sociolinguistics meets ethology

International audienceAt various phylogenetic levels including humans, one of the consequences of social influenceand learning on vocal production is the emergence of shared vocal structures between groupmembers. Although sociolinguistics has long described social dialects within social networksin adults, developmental studies in children are notably lacking. Similarly, animal studieshave considered the functions and the mechanisms of vocal sharing in adults or in adultyoungrelationships, more rarely between young. Thus, we aimed to study whether peersinfluence the acquisition of social dialects in young children and how, by combiningsociolinguistic and ethological approaches. Children from the same class in a French nurseryschool were observed during two periods over a year. Spontaneous conversations and socialinteractions among peers were recorded during free activities, using ethological methods.Children’s uses of three phonological variables known as social markers in adults wereanalyzed in relation to children’s social networks. We found that children’s verbal usesconverged within peer group over time. The density of verbal interactions appeared as a keyfactor in the similarity observed in children’s verbal uses