Some Suprasegmental Contours in French Two-Year-Old Children’s Speech

Abstract

Abstract Six 2-year-old French (Aix-en-Provence) children were tape-recorded as they identified 46 pictures with polysyllabic names (e.g., éléphant, tracteur). Approximately 200 utterances were then analyzed for fundamental frequency (Fo) contours over the word, peak intensity (I) differences between the last two syllables, and absolute and relative nuclear vowel durations (D) between the last two syllables. The principal findings were: (1) falling Fo contours outnumbered rising by about 2.5: 1; (2) rising Fo contours were somewhat narrower, on the average, than falling; (3) nearly half of the I contours were essentially level, and 84% involved differences of 6 dB or less; (4) the final vowel was, on the average, longer than the penultimate vowel by a ratio of about 1.6:1, or an absolute difference of about 70 ms; (5) Fo and I were moderately correlated, with wide rising and falling Fo being associated with wide rising and falling I contours, respectively; (6) there was a similar, though statistically weaker, relationship between Fo and D contours; and (7) there was essentially no statistical relationship between I and D contours. These findings show that French 2-year-olds are influenced by the prosodic shape of their parents’ language yet are also under the control of presumably universal speech production constraints.