Speech error elicitation and co-occurrence restrictions in two Ethiopian Semitic languages.
This article reports the results of speech error elicitation experiments investigating the role of two consonant co-occurrence restrictions in the productive grammar of speakers of two Ethiopian Semitic languages, Amharic and Chaha. Higher error rates were found with consonant combinations that violated co-occurrence constraints than with those that had only a high degree of shared phonological similarity or low frequency of co-occurrence. Sequences that violated two constraints had the highest error rates. The results indicate that violations of consonant co-occurrence restrictions significantly increase error rates in the productions of native speakers, thereby supporting the psychological reality of the constraints.
Rose
Sharon
S
Department of Linguistics 0108, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0108, USA. rose@ling.ucsd.edu
King
Lisa
L
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001184:Articulation Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D005002:Ethiopia; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010700:Phonetics; D011578:Psycholinguistics; D012660:Semantics; D013068:Speech Production Measurement / Q000379:methods