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Developmental trends in voice onset time: some evidence for sex differences.

S P Whiteside1, J Marshall

  • 1Department of Human Communication Sciences, University of Sheffield, UK. s.whiteside@sheffield.ac.uk

Phonetica
|June 26, 2001
PubMed
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This study on children's speech development found that voice onset time (VOT) patterns for plosives like /p b t d/ show age and sex differences. These differences become more pronounced by age 11, particularly in distinguishing voiced and voiceless sounds.

Area of Science:

  • Linguistics
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Phonetics

Background:

  • Voice onset time (VOT) is a crucial acoustic cue for distinguishing voiced and voiceless consonants.
  • Understanding the developmental trajectory of VOT in children is essential for tracking speech acquisition and identifying potential speech sound disorders.
  • Previous research suggests potential sex differences in phonological development, but comprehensive data on VOT across different ages and consonant types in children is limited.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate age and sex-related differences in voice onset time (VOT) patterns for the plosives /p, b, t, d/ in children aged 7, 9, and 11 years.
  • To examine whether sex differences in VOT become more pronounced with age and approach adult-like values by 11 years.
  • To determine if the magnitude of age and sex differences in VOT varies depending on the specific plosive consonant.

Related Experiment Videos

Main Methods:

  • Participants included 30 children (15 boys, 15 girls) evenly distributed across three age groups: 7, 9, and 11 years.
  • Children produced target plosives /p, b, t, d/ in syllable-initial position with a consistent vowel context by naming letter objects.
  • Voice onset time (VOT) was acoustically measured and analyzed for differences based on age, sex, and consonant type (voiced/voiceless cognates).

Main Results:

  • VOT values for /p, b/ generally decreased with age in boys, while /t/ VOT showed some increase in girls.
  • A more distinct bimodal distribution differentiating voiced and voiceless cognates was observed in girls' VOT patterns.
  • Marked sex differences in the voiced/voiceless VOT contrast emerged between 9 and 11-year-olds, especially for alveolar plosives (/t, d/).

Conclusions:

  • The study's findings support the hypotheses that sex differences in VOT exist in preadolescent children and become more marked with age.
  • These developmental and sociophonetic patterns suggest that by age 11, children exhibit more adult-like VOT distinctions, with variations across consonant types.
  • The results highlight the interplay of age, sex, and phonetic context in shaping the acquisition of phonological contrasts.