Phonological development of two-year-old monolingual Puerto Rican Spanish-speaking children

Abstract

ABSTRACT Phonetic and phonological analyses were performed on spontaneous speech samples of six 2–year–old monolingual Puerto Rican Spanish-learning children. The analyses showed a number of patterns of sound usage similar to those found in English-learning children of the same age, as well as children from other linguistic backgrounds. These findings add support to the claim that certain universal patterns exist in phonological development. However, a number of patterns were also observed which seemed to be accounted for by the target language being acquired. Similarities and differences among the individual children are also discussed.