Phonological acquisition of Turkish children: implications for phonological disorders

Abstract

The study reported describes the phonological rules typical of normal development of Turkish-speaking children. The processes identified include: reduplication, syllable deletion, consonant deletion, assimilation, cluster reduction, liquid deviation, stopping, fronting, affrication, and backing. From a crosslinguistic perspective, the phonological process patterns exhibited coincide broadly with universal tendencies, although some language specific patterns were also evident. In contrast, a case study of a phonologically disordered child indicated that her system was characterised by the use of idiosyncratic phonological rules as well as delayed acquisition of some aspects of the system. This atypical pattern reflects reports of phonologically disordered children learning other languages. The findings indicate that the deficit underlying this type of phonological disorder leads to similar phonological behaviour irrespective of the language being acquired.