Stop contrast acquisition in child Kriol: evidence of stable transmission of phonology post Creole formation

Rikke L. Bundgaard-Nielsen, Brett J. Baker, Elise A. Bell, Yizhou Wang

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    2 Citations (Scopus)
    5 Downloads (Pure)

    Abstract

    Many Aboriginal Australian communities are undergoing language shift from traditional Indigenous languages to contact varieties such as Kriol, an English-lexified Creole. Kriol is reportedly characterised by lexical items with highly variable phonological specifications, and variable implementation of voicing and manner contrasts in obstruents (Sandefur, 1986). A language, such as Kriol, characterised by this unusual degree of variability presents Kriol-acquiring children with a potentially difficult language-learning task, and one which challenges the prevalent theories of acquisition. To examine stop consonant acquisition in this unusual language environment, we present a study of Kriol stop and affricate production, followed by a mispronunciation detection study, with Kriol-speaking children (ages 4-7) from a Northern Territory community where Kriol is the lingua franca. In contrast to previous claims, the results suggest that Kriol-speaking children acquire a stable phonology and lexemes with canonical phonemic specifications, and that English experience would not appear to induce this stability.

    Original languageEnglish
    Number of pages37
    JournalJournal of Child Language
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Nov 2024

    Bibliographical note

    Publisher Copyright:
    © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press.

    Keywords

    • Creole
    • first language acquisition
    • linguistic variation
    • phonology
    • voicing contrasts

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Stop contrast acquisition in child Kriol: evidence of stable transmission of phonology post Creole formation'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this