Word-initial tap-trill clusters: Hungarian

This study investigates the developmental patterns of acquisition of word-initial (WI) /r/-clusters in children speaking Hungarian, typically developing (TD) or with protracted phonological development (PPD). Comparison data were also analysed for WI singleton /r/ and /l/. Participants were 191 children (aged 3;0-5;11) divided into three age groups (3, 4, 5 years), and further subdivided into TD and PPD subgroups on the basis of Whole Word Match scores (WWM). Acoustic analyses of perceptually accurate clusters were conducted to investigate epenthesis. Findings revealed that (1) both stop-/r/ clusters and singleton /r/ were mastered at age 5 by TD children, but not by children with PPD; (2) /l/ was mastered earlier than /r/; (3) mismatch types for clusters varied by age, with more C2 Deletion than C2 substitution at younger ages, and (4) schwa epenthesis durations were longer than, or equal to, those documented for adults.