Sinhala Phonological Features Of A One And Half Year Old Child

Abstract

Sound production is an integral aspect in the first language acquisition of a child. There are more features in the order of the production of sounds of a child in any language. The present study leads to the identification of the phonological of Sinhalese produced by a one and half year old child. In particular, the present study seeks to investigate the sounds that the child can easily articulate, the sounds that the child is unable to articulate and the organs that are frequently used by the child to produce speech sounds. For the purposes of this study, the child’s speech was recorded over three weeks. The main findings of this study reveal that the child cannot articulate any of the fricatives, most plosives other than bilabial plosive sounds, and any of the pre-nasalized voiced stops. Moreover, the child can articulate all the monophthongs although she cannot articulate any of the diphthongs in spoken Sinhala. In the present study, how the child articulates Sinhala consonants and vowels in her speech will be presented in detail.