Acoustic analysis of rhotics in coda position in five- to seven-year-old children

Abstract

This article studies the acoustic production of Central Calatan rhotics in a group of 90 boys and girls aged 5 to 7 years, in medial and final coda. An acoustic description is given by analyzing the number and type of components, both of the closure and opening phases. In view of the combination of different types of components, up to 78 different types of rhotics have been detected. The results show that most rhotic sounds have one or two components, and that rhotics with five or more components are almost always at the end of a word. In terms of acoustic properties, there is variability, with more presence of vocalic components in the medial coda and more fricative or occlusive components in the final coda.

Keywords

• Rhotics
• Coda position
• Children's speech
• Acoustics
• Catalan