EXTERNAL SOURCES OF INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES - A CROSS-LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF THE PHONETICS OF MOTHERS SPEECH TO 1-YEAR-OLD CHILDREN

Wide individual differences in early word production characterize chil dren learning the same language, but the role of specific adult input in this interchild variability is unknown. Sampling the speech of Amer ican, French, and Swedish mothers (5 in each language group) to their 1-year-old children, this study analyzed the distribution of consonant al categories, word length, and final consonants in running speech, co ntent words, initial consonant of content words, and target words (adu lt models of words attempted by the children) as well as the children' s own early words (from age 9 months to about 18 months). Variability is greater in child words than adult speech, and individual mother-chi ld dyads show no evidence of specific maternal influence on the phonet ics of the child's speech.