Rhotacism and pararhotacism in child’s speech

Abstract

The aim of the research, presented in this article, is to find out whether five-year-olds have rhotacism (distorted pronunciation of /r/, /rʲ/ phonemes) or pararhotacism (/r/, /rʲ/ replacement by another consonant). The results of this study were compared to the data obtained from the research carried out with the same subjects when they were three years old. To analyse acoustic features of both consonants /r/ and /rʲ/ the method of minimal pairs was used. The results enabled to conclude that three year-olds did not have rhotacism while 10% of five year-olds had rhoticism. It was a rolling way of pronouncing /r/ and /rʲ/. Hard trill is more difficult to pronounce than soft trill. Pararhotacism occurred in the speech of 20% of five year-olds while in three-year-olds speech it reached 80%. Unlike three-year-olds, five-year-olds did not substitute soft trill /rʲ/ with any other consonants.