A Comparative Study of the Speech Developments of Japanese and American English in Childhood (2) : The Aquisition of Speech

Abstract

We recorded the voices of six Japanese, four American infants, in Japan, and one American infant, in the U.S.A., from birth to fourteen months, and compared 1) articulation developments and 2) speech communication developments of the three groups. 1) We observed differences in intonation from about one year and differences in articulation from about one year and two months between Japanese and Americans, both in Japan and in the U.S.A., influenced by their parents' language system. 2) We observed almost the same tendency of speech communication development among the three groups. At one and two months their response in voice to voice stimuli developed a little. From about two months their phonation and articulation developed but their speech communication kept the same developmental level as before. Their phonation and articulation developed at first in the domain of non-com-munication utterances. Then they used these voices in expressing their emotions or in responding to voice stimuli. From about nine months, at first their response in simple voices to voices and then imitation of their parents' voices developed, and their evocation with simple voices developed a little. From about one year they began to use conventional words. From about one year they used their meaningless voices in talking and responding to others actively, at first with simple or repeti-tive-babbling-like voices and then with long complex voices in conversation-like intonation. From about one year and two months they began to use some conventional words in conversation situation correctly. But sometimes they uttered same voices as the words when they were playing alone and they used them in uncorrect situations.