Browsing by Author "Lojie, Demeke"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Aspects of Phonological Development in Sidaamu Afoo Speaking Children
    (Addis Ababa University, 2015) Lojie, Demeke; Messele (PhD), Abebayehu
    This study tries to describe the phonological developments noted in Sidaamu Afoo speaking children. The research took a descriptive design, employing perceptual phonetic and phonological analysis. Data was collected from 6 children aged between 3; 6 and 5; 0 years. The data were collected by having the children repeat lists of single-words and sentences. The repetition tasks were supplemented by pictures describing the words and sentences that the children were supposed to say following the research's utterances. Spontaneous continuous speech were also recorded by having the children tell stories, narrate activities, etc. SONY digital tape and video recorders were employed to capture audio and video signals, as the chi ldren talk. Data collection was carried out in two domains: at home and school. The data were first recorded orthographically and then transcribed using IP A and ExtIP A, when deemed necessary. The data were first analyzed individual ly, i.e., evclY child's phonological profile was analyzed and presented as separate case studies. The common speech production features were grouped together and presented as summaries of the phonological processes attested in the children. Attempts were also made to compare the results of the present study with other reports in the literature. The findi ngs of this study showed that although most of patterns of phonological dcvclopmcnts observed in Sidaamu Afoo speaking children are also common in other languages, there are still some language specific features that are particular tG individual languages. These differences mainly arise from the fact that languages differ in their phonemic inventories, phonotactic tules, and even overall phonological systems. An example of language specific-feature noted in Sidaamu-Afoo speaking chi ldren, i.e., feature not reported for other languages, is the ejectivisation of the implosive /efl, i.e., realization of /efl as [1']. This pattern was noted in most of the children, implying that, although ejectives and implosives are both glotta lic sounds, ejecti visation appears to be eas ier for children to acquire first than implosives. This relates to the additional physiological efforts and aerodynamic complexity that implosives require to be produced. Thi s study is by no means complete and conclusive and in fact suffers from generalizations and shallow analysis. It is just an attempt to describe an aspect of the phonological development of the children in question. But, it is hoped that the study can be a preliminary ground for fu rther research to build up on.