title: Acquisition of initial /s/-stop and stop-/s/sequences in Greek.
abstract: Previous work on children's acquisition of complex sequences points to a tendency for affricates to be acquired before clusters, but there is no clear evidence of a difference in order of acquisition between clusters with /s/ that violate the Sonority Sequencing Principle (SSP), such as /s/ followed by stop in onset position, and other clusters that obey the SSP. One problem with studies that have compared the acquisition of SSP-obeying and SSP-violating clusters is that the component sounds in the two types of sequences were different.This paper examines the acquisition of initial /s/-stop and stop-/s/ sequences by sixty Greek children aged 2 through 5 years. Results showed greater accuracy for the /s/-stop relative to the stop-/s/ sequences, but no difference in accuracy between /ts/, which is usually analyzed as an affricate in Greek, and the other stop-/s/ sequences. Moreover, errors for the /s/-stop sequences and /ts/ primarily involved stop substitutions, whereas errors for /ps/ and /ks/ were more variable and often involved fricative substitutions, a pattern which may have a perceptual explanation. Finally, /ts/ showed a distinct temporal pattern relative to the stop-/s/ clusters /ps/ and /ks/, similar to what has been reported for productions of Greek adults.
authors: University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. syrika.asimina@utdallas.edu
authors: Asimina
authors: A
authors: Syrika
authors: Katerina
authors: K
authors: Nicolaidis
authors: Jan
authors: J
authors: Edwards
authors: Mary E
authors: ME
authors: Beckman
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006115:Greece; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D007804:Language Development; D008297:Male; D010699:Phonation; D010700:Phonetics; D011578:Psycholinguistics