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Updated: Aug 15, 2026

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Published on: May 23, 2017
Phonological change and the representation of consonant clusters in Spanish: a case study
1School of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, San Diego State University, California 92182-1518, USA. jbarlow@sdsu.edu
Abstract:
This single-subject case study evaluates effects of treatment of a complex onset on the sound system of a monolingual Spanish-speaking child (female, aged 3;9) with phonological delay. Pre-treatment, the child excluded all consonant+liquid clusters, as well as tap /[symbol: see text]/ and trill /r/. Immediately following training on /f[symbol: see text]-/ in non-words, the child generalized across consonant+liquid clusters and the tap singleton. These improvements continued to 2 months post-treatment follow-up, with the ultimate addition of the trill at that point in time. Consonant+glide sequences, whose structural status as complex onsets is debated in the Spanish phonology literature, patterned differently from consonant+liquid sequences. Specific findings are viewed in light of linguistic markedness, syllable structure, sonority sequencing, and the representation of consonant clusters.
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