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Phonological Development of Intervocalic Consonants in Heritage Speakers of Spanish

Gabriela Ávila

Seth Mendez

University of Illinois of Chicago

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we examine phonological development of [b d g] and [β̞ ð̞ ɣ̞] in

English/Spanish bilingual children, with two goals. First, we aim to show how the development

of these sounds can inform ongoing debates regarding the underlying form of these segments in

Spanish. Secondly, we aim to raise awareness of the lack of normative data that is available to

Speech-language pathologist on bilingual children who are diagnosed with speech sound

disorders. We review literature regarding the phonological development in young heritage

speakers of Spanish. The studies examined will aid in providing a clearer understanding of the

Spanish phonological system as a whole. While research in heritage speaker phonology has been

studied a fair amount (e.g., Rao, 2014,2015; Rao & Ronquest, 2015), fewer studies have focused

specifically on children and even less have considered clinical implications for speech language

pathologist. We do this by looking at existing literature that looks at the acquisition of Spanish

stop-spirant alternation. To date, the arguments regarding whether the stop or the spirant are the

true underlying form depend on either an account of lenition (e.g., Harris, 1993) or fortition (e.g.,

Barlow 2003). We will look at the context in which spirantization and voiced stops appear more

prevalent in children as they develop and correlate factors of lenition and fortition. In Fabiano-
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Smith et al. (2015), findings suggest that the voiced stop is the underlying form, aligning then

with an account of lenition.

We finish with a brief discussion of the importance of additional research in this area by

presenting a proposal for a study of the phonological development of intervocalic consonants in

heritage speakers of Spanish. The purpose being to aid in bridging the gap in research on how

bilinguals develop phonologically in comparison to monolinguals. There is a need for more

documented cases of how bilinguals develop to better the assessment of bilingual children, since

an assessment of both languages is the most effective way to test for a disorder (Yavas &

Goldstein, 1998). It is of great importance to note that speech language pathologists are not

trained in bilingual phonological assessments. As noted in Fabiano-Smith et al. (2015), the lack

of training in bilingual phonological acquisition could result in a misdiagnosis when comparing

the bilingual children to monolinguals. Studies of this nature would provide guidelines to speech-

language pathologist when diagnosing phonological disorders.

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Works Cited

Barlow, J. A. (2003). The stop-spirant alternation in Spanish: Converging evidence for a fortition

account. Southwest Journal of Linguistics, 22(1), 51-86.

Fabiano-Smith, L., & Goldstein, B. A. (2010). Early-, middle-, and late-developing sounds in

monolingual and bilingual children: An exploratory investigation. American Journal of

Speech-Language Pathology, 19(1), 66-77.

Fabiano-Smith, L., Oglivie, T., Maiefski, O., & Schertz, J. (2015). Acquisition of the stop-spirant

alternation in bilingual Mexican Spanish–English speaking children: Theoretical and

clinical implications. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, 29(1), 1-26.

Yavas, M., & Goldstein, B. (1998). Phonological assessment and treatment of bilingual

speakers. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 7(2), 49-60.

Harris, J. W. (1993). Integrity of prosodic constituents and the domain of syllabification rules in

Spanish and Catalan. The view from building, 20, 177-193.

Nuñez, Rafael, Sonia Colina, and Travis G. Bradley. (2014). Fonología generativa

contemporánea de la lengua española. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press.

Rao, R. (2014). On the status of the phoneme /b/ in heritage speakers of Spanish. Sintagma:

Revista de Lingüística, 37-54.

Rao, R. (2015). Manifestations of /bdg/ in heritage speakers of Spanish. Heritage Language

Journal, 12(1), 48-74.

Rao, R., & Ronquest, R. (2015). The heritage Spanish phonetic/phonological system: Looking

back and moving forward. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 8(2), 403-414.