Child Phonology in a Language Revitalization Context: Evidence from Hul'q'umi'num'.

IF 2.1 2区文学 Q1 LINGUISTICS

Journal of Child Language Pub Date : 2026-07-07 DOI:10.1017/s0305000926100804

Boey Kwan,Sonya Bird,Martina Joe,Quaysultunaat Randeana Jack,H Henny Yeung

{"title":"Child Phonology in a Language Revitalization Context: Evidence from Hul'q'umi'num'.","authors":"Boey Kwan,Sonya Bird,Martina Joe,Quaysultunaat Randeana Jack,H Henny Yeung","doi":"10.1017/s0305000926100804","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Indigenous language revitalization is a multi-generational process. For example, many children now acquiring a Salish language in Western Canada are learning from caregivers who are second-language speakers. Little is known about the trajectory of children's phonological acquisition in such contexts. Here, we investigate Hul'q'umi'num', which, like many Salish languages, has far more consonants than English and much more frequent consonant clusters. Thirteen children (approximately 3-8 years) produced familiar Hul'q'umi'num' words after hearing adult caregivers' productions. Descriptive (using transcription notes) and quantitative (correlational and loglinear) analyses of the resulting 339 child words (1,179 consonants) revealed patterns that were reflective of general phonological development (e.g., highly variable fricatives, cluster simplification) and also patterns potentially specific to Hul'q'umi'num' acquisition (e.g., de-ejectivization, precocious production of plain uvular stops). Results provide valuable data about child phonology in Salish contexts, with implications for language acquisition in multilingual contexts and for within-community early language teaching.","PeriodicalId":48132,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Child Language","volume":"5 1","pages":"1-39"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1000,"publicationDate":"2026-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Child Language","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0305000926100804","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"LINGUISTICS","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Indigenous language revitalization is a multi-generational process. For example, many children now acquiring a Salish language in Western Canada are learning from caregivers who are second-language speakers. Little is known about the trajectory of children's phonological acquisition in such contexts. Here, we investigate Hul'q'umi'num', which, like many Salish languages, has far more consonants than English and much more frequent consonant clusters. Thirteen children (approximately 3-8 years) produced familiar Hul'q'umi'num' words after hearing adult caregivers' productions. Descriptive (using transcription notes) and quantitative (correlational and loglinear) analyses of the resulting 339 child words (1,179 consonants) revealed patterns that were reflective of general phonological development (e.g., highly variable fricatives, cluster simplification) and also patterns potentially specific to Hul'q'umi'num' acquisition (e.g., de-ejectivization, precocious production of plain uvular stops). Results provide valuable data about child phonology in Salish contexts, with implications for language acquisition in multilingual contexts and for within-community early language teaching.

查看原文本刊更多论文

语言复兴背景下的儿童音韵学：来自Hul'q'umi'num的证据。

土著语言复兴是一个多代人的过程。例如，在加拿大西部，许多正在学习萨利希语的孩子都是从说第二语言的看护人那里学习的。在这样的语境中，儿童的语音习得轨迹知之甚少。在这里，我们研究了Hul'q'umi'num'，它和许多萨利什语一样，有比英语多得多的辅音和更频繁的辅音集群。13名儿童（大约3-8岁）在听了成人看护的作品后，说出了熟悉的Hul'q'umi‘num’单词。对339个儿童单词（1179个辅音）的描述性（使用抄写注释）和定量（相关和对数线性）分析揭示了反映一般音系发展的模式（例如，高度可变的摩擦音，聚类简化）以及可能特定于Hul'q'umi‘num’习得的模式（例如，去射音化，过早产生普通小舌停顿）。研究结果提供了关于萨利希语环境下儿童音系的宝贵数据，对多语言环境下的语言习得和社区内的早期语言教学具有启示意义。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Journal of Child Language Multiple-

CiteScore

4.70

自引率

4.50%

发文量

142

期刊介绍： A key publication in the field, Journal of Child Language publishes articles on all aspects of the scientific study of language behaviour in children, the principles which underlie it, and the theories which may account for it. The international range of authors and breadth of coverage allow the journal to forge links between many different areas of research including psychology, linguistics, cognitive science and anthropology. This interdisciplinary approach spans a wide range of interests: phonology, phonetics, morphology, syntax, vocabulary, semantics, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, or any other recognised facet of language study.