#YEAH CALL ME A LABIODENTAL FRICATIVE | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lexosaurus · 7 years

Text

Aka How Kids Speak

I love myself a good aged-down or aged-up-with-kids AU just the same as anyone else. But as a linguist, sometimes the way the kids speak in these AU’s makes me want to bang my head against the wall. So I’ve decided to make a lil guide to help you in your writing.

First please note: Kids learn at different rates and will use different processes when learning to speak. If the child in your AU has some sort of learning/hearing/speech disorder, they might not grow out of these processes at the rates given here.

First I’ll go over all of the different processes, and then I’ll go over the more popular ones I’ve seen while studying preschool age children speak. If you would like to follow along with the sounds, this chart is golden.

Approx. Elimination at 2.5 Years Old

Denasalization: When a nasal consonant loses the nasal when around other non-nasal sounds. Ex: **“bood” for “spoon”

Approx. Elimination At 3 Years Old

Affrication: This is when a sound is replaced with a ’ch’ or ‘dj’ sound. Ex: “joor” for “door”

Assimilation: When a consonant will start to sound like a nearby sound. Ex: “gag” for “tag” (velar assimilation), “bub” for “tub” (labial assimilation), and “nam” for “lamb” (nasal assimilation).

Final Consonant Devoicing: Basically a voiced consonant (like b, d, g) at the end of the word is replaced by it’s voicless counterpart (p, t, k). This is where that chart I mentioned is helpful. Ex: “pick” for “pig”

*Stopping: When fricatives, affricates, (sometimes other sounds) are replaced with a stop consonant (p, b, t, d, k, g). *only f and s by 3. Ex: “tea” for “sea”

Final Consonant Deletion: When you delete the final consonant in a syllable. Ex: “bi” for “bib”

Reduplication: When the initial syllable is repeated in a multisyllabic word. Ex: “wawa” for “water”

Approx. Elimination At 3.5 Years Old

Fronting: Velar, palatal, and interdental ( consonants are replaced with alveolars or labiodentals (again, the chart is nice). Ex: “tall” for “call” and “mouf” for “mouth”

*Stopping: When fricatives, affricates, (sometimes other sounds) are replaced with a stop consonant. *All previous and v and z by 3.5. Ex: “doo” for “zoo”

Approx. Elimination at 4 Years Old

*Consonant Cluster Reduction (CCR): When a cluster of sounds is reduced to a single consonant, usually the stop. *For every sound but s. Ex: “kown” for “clown”

Unstressed Sylable Deletion: Toddlers sometimes won’t say a syllable if it’s not stressed. Especially if there’s a stressed syllable right next to it. Ex: “nana” for “banana”

Approx. Elimination at 4.5 Years Old

*Stopping: When fricatives, affricates, (sometimes other sounds) are replaced with a stop consonant. *All previous and sh, ch, and j by 4.5. Ex: “tair” for “chair”

Approx. Elimination at 5 Years Old

*Consonant Cluster Reduction (CCR): When a cluster of sounds is reduced to a single consonant, usually the stop. *s is now a eliminated too. Ex: “tor” for “store”

*Stopping: When fricatives, affricates, (sometimes other sounds) are replaced with a stop consonant. *All previous plus th. Ex: “tank” for “thank”

Approx Elimination at 6 Years Old

Gliding: Liquids (l and r) are replaced with glides (w and y). Ex: “yap” for “lap” and “wed” for “red”

Voicing: An unvoiced consonant becomes voiced when a vowel’s after it. Ex: “baber” for “paper”

Approx Elimination At 8 Years Old

Epenthesis: A vowel gets inserted to split up a consonant cluster. Ex: “buh-lue” for “blue”

Approx Elimination at ??? Years Old (my textbook didn’t say, but sometime before 7.)

Vocalization: When a vowel replaces a syllabic consonant (el, er, em, en). Ex: “appo” for “apple”

Notes

*only part of this process was eliminated here

**multiple processes can take place. “bood” for “spoon” spoon --> CCR --> poon --> Voicing --> boon --> Denasalization --> bood

Popular Processes Examples: Aka things that like every kid does

Stopping: “hab” for “have,” “dis” for “this,” “sepen” for “seven”

Fronting: “zoo” for “shoe,” and “dus” for “goose”

CCR: “coser” for “closer” and “outide” for “outside”

Gliding: “pwease” for “please” and "wocket” for “rocket”

Last Important Stuff

If a kid does a process, it doesn’t mean they CANNOT do any sounds from that process. AKA if the toddler in your AU does stopping a lot, it doesn’t mean they’re completely incapable of saying any letters f, v, s, z, th, sh, ch, dj. For example, I’ve had a kid count to ten for me, he says the letter v just fine in the word “five,” but then as soon as he gets to the word “seven” it comes out “sepen.” In another case, a kid was saying “I’m ready for outside!” and it came out “I’m weady por outside!” Notice how he doesn’t say his r properly the first time, but can say it just fine in the next word!

Basically, nothing about language learning is stagnant. Your kid can say a word or letter just fine one time around, but then 5 minutes later completely mispronounce it and not even know.

Also, kids are very observant. Unlike you and I, they mostly figure out new words from context rather than people telling them what words mean. I’ve seen teachers explain the concept of “breezy” by just waving their arms around instead of directly saying, “breezy is when the wind blows gently.” And I’ve watched a teacher say “Thrusters propel the rocket forward” and have a 4 year old totally get it and proceed to “blast off” his rocket without ever hearing the word “propel” before.

So yeah. I hope this helps you when writing!

#fanfiction #au #how kids speak #language learning #linguistics #phonological processes #name one child that doesn't do CCR #I'll wait

10 notes · View notes

obfuscobble · 7 years

Text

Consonantal sounds in order of my favour, the nerdiest post I have yet made:

FAVOURITES

1. [ɬ] voiceless alveolar lateral fricative. I feel personally attacked by Láadan where ɬ is used as a suffix to denote disgust or evil intent because “I find it to be an ugly sound.” * I find this to be one of the most beautiful and delicate of sounds, although it can get slushy. I don’t see why people fawn over [θ] as an exotic fricative when this [ɬ] is a possibility. Oh wait, yes I do: [θ] is standard in English.

2. [!] tenuis alveolar click. The king of all clicks, its bold roundness fills the mouth before bursting forth. Also fine voiced or nasalised, but classic is best by me. Making this sound feels like taking ownership of one’s mouth, especially when followed by [o] or [a].

3. [ɾ] / [ɾ̠] alveolar / post-alveolar flap. Like a tiny bird flying forth with each tap. Simultaneously common yet elusive, as a few widely-spoken languages use it as an allophone.

4. [n] alveolar nasal. Old, near standard, time-tested, yet beautiful in its sonorant simplicity and comforting richness.

5. [k] voiceless velar plosive. Punchy and dependable, without being too harsh. A solid and feisty sound.

6. [t͡ɕ] voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate. It’s so much more dainty than [t͡ʃ]. Mwah, like a candy.

7. [ʝ] voiced palatal fricative. I’ve been told I make this sound when I am caught off-guard or truly frightened. Mind, I also make it alongside vowels just to feel its mellifluous yet sharp vibration.

8. [ɸ] voiceless bilabial fricative. The fluffiest of sounds, like the consonantal equivalent of vicuña hair or otter down.

9. [ʒ] voiced palato-alveolar sibilant. I’m sure I just like this because of growing up alongside French, but it just sounds sumptuous and inviting.

10. [ŋ] velar nasal. Really can’t express the charm of this nasal, but it simply sounds lovely and charismatic after just about every vowel, and cute in front.

11. [t] voiceless alveolar stop and [s] voiceless alveolar sibilant. These sounds are a workhorse and they deserve their due acclaim. You wouldn’t think “oh yes, let’s put the bog-common [t] on a great sounds list, and let’s celebrate that hissy peasant [s]” but here we are and these we are lauding.

*(Quoting from when I e-mailed Elgin in college; she was still an intelligent and kind and overall swell lady and I wish no enmity on her memory.)

LEAST FAVOURITE Note I am not denigrating any language that uses these; I’m simply describing mouthfeel as I articulate. Presented in ascending order of dislike.

-1. [ɡ͡b] voiced labio-velar stop. Because I’m a weenie who can’t pronounce it well yet without overly stressing the g and I’m mad at myself and feel like every Gbe speaker is judging me for trying and failing so hard. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.

-2. [ɥ] labialized palatal approximant. It’s like a pretentious [w] and I say that as a person prone to pretension.

-3. [f] voiceless labiodental fricative. Your teeth usually show when making this sound, and it’s not as fluffy as [ɸ], so basically an embarrassment.

-4. [ʘ] bilabial click. The worst of the clicks. It’s not a kissy-sound, more of a popping. I can’t forgive it for being a bad click.

-5. [ħ] voiceless pharangeal fricative. It’s not quite [h] and whenever I make it, I feel like I’m just about to transform into a person eager to tell others my opinion of ethics in games journalism.

-6. [pʰ] aspirated voiceless bilabial stop. People say [kʰ] is harsh but free me from the yoke of [pʰ] because it sounds violent and vulgar to me.

-7. [qʰ] But I mean I think we can all agree this is worse.

-8 [ɧ] This symbol* exists solely to perpetuate The Discourse™ and is not helpful in any way.

-9. [θ] voiceless dental fricative. SUCH A PRIMADONNA. Hey, wanna make a language sound erudite, delicate, yet approachably alien in your fantasy? Just add in some [θ], you lazy hack writer. We all know you’re aping Tolkien, but unlike him, you’re not basing your usage on Celtic languages. You’re just using [θ] because it’s one of the rarest sounds still found in English and it “sounds prettier” then [s]. Yeah I see you and I’m calling you out. [ð] is fine though; most people who use this seem to know what they’re doing. I mean sure, if [θ] is simply part of your conlang’s phonology, because you’ve put work into it and can show me a usable grammar as well, okay. But we all know what I’m talking about. We all know, Thalânruil Oréthos, son of Goldendew.

-10. [ɹ̠] postalveolar approximant. If there’s a consonant that I want to kick in the crotch, it’s this one. I know you just read about my relationship with [θ] but [ɹ̠] kind of feels like a creeping crud, especially when substituted for other rhotics by English speakers trying to say foreign words. I don’t expect everyone to be able to pronounce foreign rhotics but still [ɹ̠] feels like “global imperialism : the sound.”

*Swedish followers, I love you, but arguments over how to realise the /sj/ sound drive me to madness.

#linguistics #i am a dork it's true

9 notes · View notes