The acquisition of the Rhotic Consonants by Welsh-English bilingual children

Abstract

This article reports on a study into the acquisition of Welsh and English phonology in Welsh-English bilingual children. It concentrates on the acquisition of the rhotic consonants, that is the trilled-r of Welsh and the approximant- r of English. The trilled-r shows differential patterns of acquisition depending on the age and language dominance of the subjects. It also demonstrates a wide range of substitutions, and it is argued that some of these may be due to influence from English, while others seem to be used because of their acoustic similarity to the target. Much less variation is found with the substitutions used for approximant-r, and it is shown that, again, there is an acoustic reason for the choice of the commonest of them. While the two sounds clearly are different, neither the trill nor the approximant demonstrate 100% accurate usage even in the oldest age group of subjects (4;6—5;0) (although the approximant does approach 90%). Therefore, they belong to the group of consonants acquired last in their respective languages.