Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 2020, Qupperneq 76

The study reveals that Fía’s acquisition of /r/ is a gradual process which can be divided
into three main stages. During stage 1, which lasts until age three and a half (3;05:25), /r/
is systematically replaced by /j/ in word-initial position and also to some extent in word-
medial and word-final positions, although /r/-deletion is most frequent in these positions
to begin with. At the end of this stage, Fía produces variants of /r/ six times, mostly the
alveolar approximant [ɹ], but also the flap/tap [ɾ] and the unvoiced trill []. In stage 2, Fía
starts to produce /r/ for real, and the variant she uses is the uvular trill [ʀ]. As described
above, in stage 1, Fía systematically substituted /r/ with /j/, which is usually categorized
as a palatal fricative, and thus the uvular [ʀ], which is formed at the back of the mouth, may
be a logical first choice for /r/. Soon afterwards, around the age of four (4;00:26), Fía
reaches the final stage, stage 3, where she acquires adult Icelandic /r/, i.e. the alveolar trill
[r]/[].
It is interesting that during stage 1, Fía substitutes /j/ not only for /r/ but also for the
alveolar fricative /ð/, and when she reaches stage 3, and starts to produce adult-like [r], she
overgeneralizes it and uses it both for /r/ and /ð/. This result supports the claim that /r/
and /ð/ are related phonologically in Icelandic, as they have many distinctive features in
common. Also, studies on Icelandic children’s phonological development have revealed
that the most common substitution process for /r/ in Icelandic language acquisition is to
replace it with /ð/. Thus, Fía follows an unusual trajectory by replacing both /r/ and /ð/
with /j/, and although such substitutions are not unheard of in Icelandic children’s lan-
guage acquisition, replacing /r/ with /j/ is not a common process among Icelandic chil-
dren.
A final fact worth mentioning is that when Fía starts to produce /r/-variants, they first
appear in positions where she previously used no /r/. Thus, she first uses these new
sounds in her phonetic repertoire in positions where no sound has appeared before or in
new words she has recently learned. Although some questions are still unanswered about
Fíaʼs development of /r/, the longitudinal data gives us an interesting insight into the
phonological acquisition of a young Icelandic child.
Kristín Þóra Pétursdóttir
Tónlistarskóla Reykjanesbæjar
260 Reykjanesbæ
kthp1@hi.is
Sigríður Sigurjónsdóttir
Íslensku- og menningardeild
Háskóla Íslands
Árnagarði við Suðurgötu
102 Reykjavík
siggasig@hi.is
Kristín Þóra Pétursdóttir og Sigríður Sigurjónsdóttir76