The acquisition of the final coda position in the speech of a Greek-acquiring child

Abstract

This case study investigates the acquisition of the word-final coda in child Greek. The data show that the child has acquired the CVC syllabic form word-finally and that the acquisition process of the final coda consonant involves intra-child variation. Initially, the child realizes a Stop word-finally, instead of the target sibilant /s/, which is a morphological marker in Greek. We claim that the realization of [t] word-finally is morphologically driven and is not attributed to input frequency effects since Stops are prohibited as codas in Greek. We argue that the child’s grammar prohibits a marked segment for continuancy in the prosodically weak coda position. Therefore, Positional Neutralization occurs resulting in the realization of the unmarked [−continuant] [t]. Later, [ts] and [tθ] occur word-finally, before the child’s realizations become adult-like. We argue that as long as a final coda consonant occurs, the morphological information is evident in the child’s realizations.