Speech sound acquisition in Azeri Turkish-speaking children in Iran

Currently no data exist on the acquisition of speech sounds in Azeri Turkish-speaking children in Iran. This investigation was conducted to describe phonological development in Azeri Turkish-speaking children.

A total of 120 typically developing Azeri Turkish-speaking children within the age range of 3;0 to 4;11 years were recruited. They were asked to name pictures in the Azeri Turkish Speech Test and their productions were analyzed to determine consonant acquisition, Percentage of Consonants Correct (PCC), Percentage of Vowels Correct (PVC), and Whole Word Proximity (WWP) according to sex and age. In addition, PCC values in terms of consonant position in the syllable (syllable-initial and syllable-final), and manner of articulation were calculated.

For consonant acquisition, they mastered all consonants except [d, d͡z, t͡s, ʒ, v, ɟ] by 4;11 years of age. PCC values increased with increasing age (H(3)= 67.212, p <0.001). In terms of manner of articulation, PCC showed that nasals were most accurately produced and trill sound least accurate. The effect of sex on PCC values was not significant U (N_males =60, N_females =60)= 1686.5, z = -0.600, p=.54). WWP values were also found to increase in older children H(3)=46.94, p<.001). Similarly, the effect of sex on WWP values was not significant U (N_males =60, N_females =60)= 1782.5, z = -0.09, p=.92).

Children acquiring speech sounds in the Azeri Turkish language show some similar tendencies to children acquiring other languages but are also different. Findings of the present research describe phonological development in Azeri Turkish-speaking children, which has not been documented before.