Tongue root harmony cues for speech segmentation in multilingually raised infants learning languages with and without vowel harmony in Ghana (Africa)

This study investigated the hypothesis that 9- to 11-month-old multilingual infants learning Akan (an Advanced Tongue Root [ATR] harmony and understudied language) alongside other non-vowel harmony languages in Ghana (Africa) can use ATR harmony cues for speech segmentation. Using the central fixation procedure, infants were familiarized with bi-syllabic words in two passages, one with ATR cues and one without, and then tested on isolated familiarized and novel bi-syllabic words. Results indicate that, as a group, infants segmented words in their native language using ATR harmony cues, showing a familiarity preference. No effect of exposure to ATR harmony language(s) was found. These results provide the first evidence of word segmentation in infants learning between two and five languages, and with infants in Africa. The findings contribute to our understanding of multilingual infants’ language processing, suggesting their sensitivity to phonotactics in the input and use of native language cues for speech processing.