Final devoicing in Yemeni child language: an OT account

Abstract

This paper examines acquisition of voiced obstruents by Yemeni Arabic speaking children. In particular, it looks at the phenomenon of devoicing voiced obstruents in word-final position, a well-established phenomenon in the literature of child phonology. Children appear to devoice the voiced obstruents as a strategy to simplify production of voiced obstruents in word-final position. Six Yemeni Arabic speaking children aged 2;6, 2;8, 2;9, 2;10,2;11 and 3 have participated in this study. They have been recorded and then the data collected have been transcribed by the researchers. An OT account is then provided to explain this phonological process. Results suggest that children substitute voiced obstruents in word-final position, most of the time, with their voiceless cognates in early child language. The devoicing process might have interesting implications, both phonological and pedagogical.

Keywords

• Child language
• Yemeni Arabic
• voiced obstruents
• final devoicing
• optimality theory
• Linguistic Theory