The Acquisition of Arabic Consonants

This normative study of the acquisition of consonants of Arabic as spoken in Jordan answered 4 questions: (1) What percentage of children at each of 9 age levels produced each consonant correctly? (2) What are the ages of customary production, mastery, and acquisition for each phoneme? (3) Does accuracy of consonants within sound classes vary by position in the word? (4) What are the differences in ages of acquisition between Arabic and English? Samples were collected from 180 normally developing children between the ages of 2:0 and 6:4. The percentages of accuracy of both standard and acceptable consonants were plotted and showed clear developmental trends. Medial consonants were significantly more accurate than initial and final consonants. The ages of customary production, acquisition, and mastery of Arabic consonants were similar to those for English but with notable exceptions that have implications for description of phonological acquisition. Support for previously proposed universal sound acquisition sequences was found, but some language-specific effects were also seen.