Some Theoretical Considerations of Articulation Substitution Phenomena

Articulation substitutes in the speech samples of American children, grades one through six, representing standard American English, Black English, and Spanish-influenced-English were analysed using a distinctive features approach. Results indicated that beyond variations due to dialect and second language influences, most substitutions could be predicted from phonemic complexity criteria developed from phonological theory. Specially, markedness theory was demonstrated as a basis of predicting the phonetic feature characteristics of substitutions.