Preschoolers’ intuitions shed light on the seemingly variable syllable structure in Russian

Following insights from the phonological literature, the present study investigated the sonority profiles of consonant sequences and their relation to word-initial phonotactics and stress position as determinants of Russian syllabification. Since elicited syllabification judgments may be influenced by participants’ literacy experience the metalinguistic task used to elicit such judgements was administered to both literate adults and preliterate preschoolers in Russia.