Non-word repetition in children learning Yélî Dnye

In non-word repetition (NWR) studies, participants are presented auditorily with an item that is phonologically legal but lexically meaningless in their language, and asked to repeat this item as closely as possible. NWR scores are thought to reflect some aspects of phonological development, salient...

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Main Authors: Alejandrina Cristia, Marisa Casillas
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Carnegie Mellon University Library Publishing Service 2022-03-01
Series:Language Development Research
Subjects:
Online Access:https://lps.library.cmu.edu/LDR/article/id/424/
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author Alejandrina Cristia
Marisa Casillas
author_facet Alejandrina Cristia
Marisa Casillas
author_sort Alejandrina Cristia
collection DOAJ
description In non-word repetition (NWR) studies, participants are presented auditorily with an item that is phonologically legal but lexically meaningless in their language, and asked to repeat this item as closely as possible. NWR scores are thought to reflect some aspects of phonological development, saliently a perception-production loop supporting flexible production patterns. In this study, we report on NWR results among children learning Yélî Dnye, an isolate spoken on Rossel Island in Papua New Guinea. Results make three contributions that are specific, and a fourth that is general. First, we found that non-word items containing typologically frequent sounds are repeated without changes more often that non-words containing typologically rare sounds, above and beyond any within-language frequency effects. Second, we documented rather weak effects of item length. Third, we found that age has a strong effect on NWR scores, whereas there are weak correlations with gender, maternal education, and birth order. Fourth, we weave our results with those of others to serve the general goal of reflecting on how NWR scores can be compared across participants, studies, languages, and populations,  and the extent to which they shed light on the factors universally structuring variation  in phonological development at a global and individual level.
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spelling doaj.art-9c8a19329a1c4d919524d991c5e942982024-02-19T12:27:02ZengCarnegie Mellon University Library Publishing ServiceLanguage Development Research2771-79762022-03-012110.34842/zr2q-1x28Non-word repetition in children learning Yélî DnyeAlejandrina Cristia0Marisa Casillas1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5417-0505National Centre for Scientific ResearchUniversity of ChicagoIn non-word repetition (NWR) studies, participants are presented auditorily with an item that is phonologically legal but lexically meaningless in their language, and asked to repeat this item as closely as possible. NWR scores are thought to reflect some aspects of phonological development, saliently a perception-production loop supporting flexible production patterns. In this study, we report on NWR results among children learning Yélî Dnye, an isolate spoken on Rossel Island in Papua New Guinea. Results make three contributions that are specific, and a fourth that is general. First, we found that non-word items containing typologically frequent sounds are repeated without changes more often that non-words containing typologically rare sounds, above and beyond any within-language frequency effects. Second, we documented rather weak effects of item length. Third, we found that age has a strong effect on NWR scores, whereas there are weak correlations with gender, maternal education, and birth order. Fourth, we weave our results with those of others to serve the general goal of reflecting on how NWR scores can be compared across participants, studies, languages, and populations,  and the extent to which they shed light on the factors universally structuring variation  in phonological development at a global and individual level.https://lps.library.cmu.edu/LDR/article/id/424/literacyphonologynon-word repetitionPapuannon-industrialnon-urban
spellingShingle Alejandrina Cristia
Marisa Casillas
Non-word repetition in children learning Yélî Dnye
Language Development Research
literacy
phonology
non-word repetition
Papuan
non-industrial
non-urban
title Non-word repetition in children learning Yélî Dnye
title_full Non-word repetition in children learning Yélî Dnye
title_fullStr Non-word repetition in children learning Yélî Dnye
title_full_unstemmed Non-word repetition in children learning Yélî Dnye
title_short Non-word repetition in children learning Yélî Dnye
title_sort non word repetition in children learning yeli dnye
topic literacy
phonology
non-word repetition
Papuan
non-industrial
non-urban
url https://lps.library.cmu.edu/LDR/article/id/424/
work_keys_str_mv AT alejandrinacristia nonwordrepetitioninchildrenlearningyelidnye
AT marisacasillas nonwordrepetitioninchildrenlearningyelidnye