The second most common syllable type is isolated vowels (18%), followed by syllables ending with consonants as the least common (e.g., CVC, VC, CCVC) (Goldstein & Cintron, 1985). This is a cross-linguistic phenomenon in babbling (MacNeilage, Davis, Kinney, & Matyear, 2000), but Spanish retains the CV dominated syllable type (Quilis, 1999). The syllable structures in Spanish are highly dominated by CV sequences (Goldstein & Cintron, 1985). Syllable Structure and Complexity in Spanish (What a mouthful!) Table 4: Examples of English and Spanish Diphthongs English Be aware! A lack of or excessive use of diphthongs is considered atypical in either language when taken as a whole. The combination of two weak vowels also exists but is used less frequently (Quilis, 1999). Like English, a Spanish diphthong is normally the combination of one hard vowel (/a/,/o/,/u/) and one weak vowel (/i/,/e/). In contrast, an English-speaker would be expected to compress her speech to rely on less than half of the typical number of vowels used.ĭiphthongs exist in both languages-they are as prevalent in Spanish as they are in English. A Spanish-speaker learning to speak English would be expected to create additional vowel sounds that are not native to her. However, English also employs an additional eight vowels on average (13 total). These vowels are represented in the English sound system. The Spanish vowel space is like most Latin languages, relying on five vowels /a/,/e/,/i/,/o/and /u/. Table 2: Age of Acquisition of Phonemes in Spanish.Note: From Bedore (1999). Check out the following chart depicting the results of numerous studies on the age of acquisition of sounds in Spanish: When speaking strictly of sound class, order of acquisition in Spanish resembles the progression of sound acquisition per class in English. English, on the other hand, does not use the trilled /rr/ or the /ɲ/of Spanish (Quilis, 1999). Spanish lacks the glottal /’/, the voiced affricate /ʤ/ (judge), the voiced /ð/ and unvoiced /θ/ (thigh, thy), the voiced /ž/ and unvoiced /ʃ/ (azure, shy), the /z/, the /ŋ/ (sing), and the flap /ɾ/ (as in butter) (Quilis, 1999). That being said, there are also allophonic or dialectal variations within either language. Universally, stop consonants are acquired first, followed by nasals, then fricatives and affricates, and liquids are the last sounds to appear (Goldstein & Washington, 2001). One of the most important things to know about the acquisition of these sounds is that nearly all of them are emerging by the end of four years of age. See the handy chart below for an illustration of Spanish phonemes. Spanish is more concise in that it has 18 consonant phonemes compared to 26 in English. Speech development in Spanish and English has many similarities, such as a shared alphabet. Presenting…The phonologies of English and Spanish! In short, we ALL need this information in our tool kits. We’re guessing that’s why you’re here right now! And you’re in the right place-in the United States alone, 10% (35 million) of the population is Hispanic, and that number is expected to double by 2030 (United States Census, 2000). It goes without saying that regardless of the language of intervention that you use in speech therapy, you’ve come across questions about speech development differences between Spanish and English. So sit back, relax and enjoy this blog post! Ladies and Gentlemen! Before we begin… We will also look at differences between Spanish and English in the acquisition and use of vowels and consonants, as well as differences in syllable types. You’ll learn about the acquisition of speech sounds in both languages, which speech patterns in Spanish and English are shared and which are different, and how phonological processes manifest in each language. We will break down this seemingly daunting topic so that you walk away feeling ready to answer any speech sound question that comes your way. Today we are going to talk about speech development in Spanish and English. Speech Development in Spanish and English: What the differences mean to SLPsĬategories: English Language Learners - Evaluation and Therapy Reduce Your Caseload (District Optimization).Speech and Language School Therapy Services.Communication Disorder Resources for Parents.Spanish Translations for IEP/ARD Meetings.Teletherapy Speech Language Evaluations.
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