Cambios en la adquisición del sistema fonológico de las consonantes entre 4 y 5 años

This study is a part of a more extensive project on the acquisition of the Catalan consonant system. Two tests were administered to 150 children aged between 3 and 7 years old. One test was about naming words and the other was about repetition of pseudowords. The various levels analyzed showed evidence of a phase of change separating the behavior of groups aged 3 and 4 from that of groups aged 5, 6 and 7 years. Evidence for this change was found in all four variables analyzed: the number of errors, the error type (phonetic or phonological), the type of simplification process (substitution, assimilation, elision, epenthesis, metathesis), and the number of affected properties (manner of articulation, place of articulation and voicing). Thus, based on the statistical data, groups aged 3 and 4 years old showed a greater number of errors than expected; these errors were more phonological than phonetic, consisted mainly of deletions and involved more than one property. Groups aged 5, 6 and 7 years old, however, showed fewer errors than expected; the number of phonetic errors increased, consisted mainly of epenthesis and substitutions and involved only one property.