title: Planning of Hiatus-Breaking Inserted /ɹ/ in the Speech of Australian English-Speaking Children.
abstract: Non-rhotic varieties of English often use /ɹ/ insertion as a connected speech process to separate heterosyllabic V1.V2 hiatus contexts. However, there has been little research on children's development of this strategy. This study investigated whether children use /ɹ/ insertion and, if so, whether hiatus-breaking /ɹ/ can be considered planned, as evidenced by F3 lowering on V1.
  
  
  
  Thirteen Australian English-speaking children (7 girls, 6 boys; mean age 6;1 [years;months]) participated in an elicited production task. The stimuli included carrier sentences containing 4 test words (linking /ɹ/ context: door, floor; intrusive /ɹ/ context: paw, claw) followed by of (e.g., "This is the paw of the cat"). After familiarization containing auditory and picture prompts, children produced test sentences upon presentation of picture prompts alone.
  
  
  
  Eight children produced /ɹ/ insertion; the others used (some) glottalization. The incidence of /ɹ/ did not vary across linking or intrusive contexts, and inserted /ɹ/ was associated with F3 lowering at V1 onset relative to control items without /ɹ/.
  
  
  
  Six-year-old Australian English-speaking children who use /ɹ/ insertion show evidence of planning ahead and inserting /ɹ/ as a segment. The implications for the development of speech-planning processes and phonological and lexical representations are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Linguistics, Macquarie University, North Ryde, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Ivan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Yuen
authors.affiliation: Department of Linguistics, Macquarie University, North Ryde, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Felicity
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cox
authors.affiliation: Department of Linguistics, Macquarie University, North Ryde, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Katherine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Demuth
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007807:Language Tests; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills; D010700:Phonetics; D013060:Speech; D013068:Speech Production Measurement; D013850:Thinking