1. The Development of Language-Specific Speech Norms for Sri Lankan Tamil
Shakeela Saleem, Ajeema Wahid, Shyamani Hettiarachchi.
Department of Disability Studies, Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka.
INTRODUCTION
Data collection method:
Questionnaire (demographic details)
Informal picture based assessment of Sri
Lankan Tamil (80 pictures included sounds in
initial, medial, final and clusters) based on
the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and
Phonology (DEAP) (3)
Responses were audio recorded and
simultaneously phonetically transcribed.
Data analysis:
Phonemic acquisition:
Phoneme emergence (3) – if a phoneme was
produced by 90% of children in an age group
Phonological processes: (3)
5 occurrences of an error pattern in 10% of
children in an age group
Phonological accuracy measures: (3)
Percent of Consonants Correct (PCC),
Percent of Vowels Correct (PVC) and Percent of Phonemes Correct (PPC)
Statistical analyses were done using independent samples t tests on SPSS 16
Table 1 Phonemic acquisition of older and younger groups of children
25% of people speak Sri Lankan Tamil in Sri
Lanka and there are dialectal variations
based on ethnicity and geographical location(1).
Normative data on speech development is
essential to differentiate between delayed and
disordered speech.
Speech and Language Therapists in Sri Lanka
currently use standardized English norms in
clinical practice to diagnose and plan
intervention for speech disorders.
Cross-linguistic studies have shown that
languages have universal and specific
features; the norms of one language can thus
not be applied to other languages.(2,4)
The need to obtain language-specific normative
data for speech development is essential.
Younger children
Older children
3;0 - 3;5 years
3;6 - 3;11 years
Emerged
Plosive
p, b, t, d, k, g, ʈ, ɖ, c, ɟ
Nasal
m, n, ɳ , ŋ
Fricative
s, f
Approximant
j, v
Trill r
r, ɽ
Lateral l
Not emerged ɲ
h, ʃ Ɩ ɽ
Figure 1: The mean comparison of both age group in phonological accuracy measures
CONCLUSIONS
Language-specific findings for Sri Lankan
Tamil compared to English norms
▪ Late acquisition of / ʃ /, /h/
▪ Early mastery of /c/, / ɟ /, /r/
Language universal (fronting, stopping) and
language-specific (lateralization, replacing
/g/ for /h/ and /k/ for /h/ ) processes were
evident in Sri Lankan Tamil.
There is a statistical significance of age and
social dialectal variation on phonological
measures.
Recommendations for further research
Include participants from a wider age range
Longitudinal descriptive study
The phonological processes
Three processes (fronting, stopping, lateralization) were found in the younger age group and one (fronting) in the older age group (Table 2).
Table 2 The phonological processes identified in more than 10% of children in an age group based on 5 occurrence.
Process
Target word
Adult realization
Child realization
Fronting
Ear
/ka:du/
/ ta:du/
Stopping
Cock
/ se:vəl/
/te:vəl/
Lateralization
Tree
/marəm/
/maləm/
OBJECTIVES
To gain reliable developmental norms for
phonemic acquisition and phonological
processes in Sri Lankan Tamil
Compare and contrast the findings between:
Age groups, gender and social dialectal
variations ( Hindu and Muslim)
Some examples of language-specific error patterns observed which had less than 5 occurrences
Process
Target word
Adult realization
Child realization
/h/ → /k/
Cloud
/me:həm/
/ me:kəm/
/h/ → /g/
Smoke
/ pohə/
/pogə/
References
1. Suseendirarajah, S.,1999. Prof. S. Suseendirarajah’s
sixty fifth birthday commemoration volume [Manuscript].
sixty fifth birthday commemoration committee.
University of Jaffna. Sri Lanka.
2. Naidoo, Y., 2003, A development profile of speech
sound and syllable acquisition in Zulu speaking children.
M.Sc dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria.
3. Dodd , B., Holm, A., Hua, Z. and Crosbies, S., 2003,
Phonological development: a normative study of British
English-speaking children Clinical Linguistics and
Phonetics, 17,
4. Hua, Z. and Dodd, B., 1999, The phonological
acquisition of Putongua (Modern Standard Chinese)
METHODOLOGY
RESULTS
Phonological accuracy measures (figure 1)
Older children had higher PCC (p<0.05) and PPC
(p<0.05) than younger children.
Girls had higher mean scores on each measure
which did not reach statistical significance
Older Hindu children had higher PCC (p<0.01)
and PPC (p<0.05) than older Muslim children.
Study design: Descriptive cross- sectional study
Study participants:160 children aged 3;0-3;5
and 3;6-3;11 years old, first language speakers of Sri Lankan Tamil in Colombo and Trincomalee
No exclusion criteria was used (3)
Phonemic acquisition
Older children acquired 84% and younger
children acquired 80% of the total target
phonemes assessed (Table 1).