Speech error elicitation and co-occurrence restrictions in two Ethiopian Semitic languages.

This article reports the results of speech error elicitation experiments investigating the role of two consonant co-occurrence restrictions in the productive grammar of speakers of two Ethiopian Semitic languages, Amharic and Chaha. Higher error rates were found with consonant combinations that viol...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Language & Speech Vol. 50; no. 4; pp. 451 - 505
Autores principales: Rose S, King L
Formato: research tables/charts Journal Article
Publicado: Sage Publications Inc. Dec2007
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:This article reports the results of speech error elicitation experiments investigating the role of two consonant co-occurrence restrictions in the productive grammar of speakers of two Ethiopian Semitic languages, Amharic and Chaha. Higher error rates were found with consonant combinations that violated co-occurrence constraints than with those that had only a high degree of shared phonological similarity or low frequency of co-occurrence. Sequences that violated two constraints had the highest error rates. The results indicate that violations of consonant co-occurrence restrictions significantly increase error rates in the productions of native speakers, thereby supporting the psychological reality of the constraints.