The acquisition of a phonologic feature of Black English

Production and perception of word-final /theta/ was assessed among Black English and standard English speaking children of grades 1-4. The two dialectal groups were significantly different in production but not in perception of the word-final /theta/. Comparable perceptual performance on discrimination and recognition tasks across the four grade-levels indicated parallel perceptual mastery of /theta/ between groups despite production differences of form. Production of respective adult dialect forms, that is, /theta/ for standard English and /theta/----/f/ for Black English, preceded perceptual mastery. Because /theta/ is represented by the /theta/----/f/ substitution pattern in both adult Black English and emerging phonology of standard English, its acquisitional form in the phonology of Black English speaking children has particular implications for acquisitional theory and the applied clinical domain. Thus, sequential developmental stages for the acquisition of word-final /theta/ are proposed in this study and clinical implications discussed.