Production of /sh/ in trochaic and nontrochaic weak contexts

This study examined whether young children produce an emerging sound (/s/) more accurately in a weak syllable if the syllable is trochaic (i.e., in a strong-weak syllable pattern) than if it is nontrochaic (i.e., either preceding a strong syllable or following another weak syllable). Eight typically-developing 28- to 32-month-old children who sometimes misproduced /s/ imitated three-syllable nonwords with /s/ as the onset in five syllable types: (a) word-medial stressed, (b) word-medial unstressed following a stressed syllable (i.e., trochaic), (c) word-initial nontrochaic, (d) word-medial nontrochaic, and (e) word-final nontrochaic. As predicted, /s/ was more accurate in trochaic than nontrochaic contexts. Among nontrochaic contexts, /s/ was more accurate in word-final position than in word-initial or word-medial positions. Production of /s/ in word-final nontrochaic syllables was similar to that in word-medial trochaic syllables. Metrical structure and final syllable prominence together predicted which weak syllables are most likely to contain consonant errors.