Child Phonological Development in Vowel Sequences and some Proposals conceming Japanese VV Classification

After a review of perceptual experiments，this paper makes proposals concerning the classification of vowel sequences in Japanese，focusing firstly on children's perceptual development，and secondly on mature phonology. It is hoped that the proposals presented will allow (1) an impartial framework within which to compare groups of sequences (some of which have been proposed in the literature as diphthongs)，(2) a theoretically neutral reclassification that does not rely on the presupposition of syllable as a phonological unit，and (3) an understanding of why the concept of diphthong is attractive but not essential in the analysis of a mora-timed language