14th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS-14) San Francisco, CA, USA August 1-7, 1999

F₀ Declination Line: More Evidence from Infants' and Children's Speech (9-48 Months)

C. Dodane (1), G. Konopczynski (1), S. Santi (1), R. Espesser (2)

(1) Laboratoire de Phonétique de Besançon, GRI-DESYCOLE, France
(2) Laboratoire Parole et Langage, Aix-en-Provence, France

In this study, we examine the F₀ declination line (F₀DL) in full term and preterm babies, between the age of 9 months, when a child still babbles, and the age of 48 months when a language with longer and complex sentences is already acquired. Two main situations of communication were chosen: solitary babbling/ interaction with adult. An instrumental analysis (Pitch detection, F₀ curves) was conducted, a linear regression on all detected F₀ values was computed and its significance tested statistically. The first results show that both situation of communication (solitary vs interaction with an adult) and age influence the presence and use of F₀DL. Also, full term and premature babies seem to behave differently. The physiological and phonological aspects of the F₀DL in communication and langage development are discussed.

Full Paper

Bibliographic reference.  Dodane, C. / Konopczynski, G. / Santi, S. / Espesser, R. (1999): "F₀ declination line: more evidence from infants' and children's speech (9-48 months)", In ICPhS-14, 2161-2164.