Individual differences in the production of initial consonant sequences inPig Latin

Accounts of English initial consonant sequences suggest that not all sequen ces are the same. Data from acquisition, speech errors and language games n ecessitate unusual rules/constraints on subsyllabic structure to account fo r C/j/ and /s/C(C) sequences. Acquisition evidence supports within- and acr oss-speaker representational differences for these sequences; however, such evidence for adults remains elusive. This study investigates the represent ation of consonant sequences within and across adult speakers of English. T hirty adults were trained in Pig Latin using words with singletons and true clusters. Generalization to C/j/ and /s/C(C) was then measured. Results su ggested differential patterning for consonant sequences within and across s peakers based on consistent production patterns and errors. Differences occ urred most often with /s/C(C) sequences and even more so for C/j/. Orthogra phy also influenced production patterns. Results support differential repre sentational structure within and across individual grammars, which is accou nted for via constraint-based output-output correspondence between surface and Pig Latin forms. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.