A description of phonological patterns in Afrikaans children aged 24–72 months : a retrospective study

Abstract

Purpose: Afrikaans is one of eleven official languages in South Africa, spoken by 6.8 million speakers. However, limited information exists regarding phonological development in this speaker group. This study aimed to describe phonological patterns (PP) in Afrikaans speaking children aged 24–72 months. To the researcher’s knowledge, no other studies have attempted to evaluate the phenomenon of PP in Afrikaans speaking children. Furthermore, no normative data have previously been collected to determine the prevalence rates of PP within a specific age range (24–72 months) in the Afrikaans speaking group. The study adds a valuable contribution by focusing on and capturing accurate and reliable information regarding the development of PP in specific age groups in the Afrikaans first-language speaker. Additionally, the study comments on the differences in the occurrence of PP between male and female speakers. Method: The data of 147 participants, distributed across the age range of 24–72 months, were used for this retrospective study. The study employed a retrospective, descriptive study design with comparative components. This retrospective study used previously collected electronic audio recordings from the research by Pringle et al. (2022) that included the speech production of Afrikaans children. The design allowed for the collection of quantitative data and analysed the PP types evident in each child's voice recordings in each age group. The data were analysed by professional speech-language therapists (SLTs) who were divided into panels of three members each for each age group. Statistical analyses were further done to determine the results of the study. Results and discussion: Results confirmed that all patterns still persisted after 72 months, except for word-final devoicing and vocalisation/vowelisation, which were fully eliminated by 72 months in Afrikaans first-language speakers. The gliding of liquids and an approximation of the trill /r/ had the highest prevalence among Afrikaans speakers. Statistically significant differences occurred between the occurrence of a specific pattern between male and female participants. Conclusion: The study highlights the contribution that first-language Afrikaans speaking children manifest different prevalence rates for specific PP compared to other children of the same age in other languages. PP show distinct results for individual languages. The results of this study can serve as a guideline for Afrikaans SLTs in private practices or at schools to guide assessment and diagnoses, as well as guide intervention goals and targets for the specific population. The current study further provides a baseline for future research studies regarding PP in Afrikaans first-language speakers.