Phonological Processes in the Acquisition of Kiswahili: An Optimality Theory Perspective

Abstract

In the acquisition of any language, the child is faced with multiple challenges. Among these is segmenting a continuous stream of speech into individual sound segments and articulating consonant clusters and polysyllabic words. Due to limitations of cognitive and physiological development, the child has to simplify the acquisition task via alternations and changes to the adult input. This may naturally lead to a number of phonological processes. However, the attested phonological processes differ from language to language and from one child to another. The objective of this study was to address these issues by examining phonological process that accompany the acquisition of Kiswahili phonemic inventory and the syllable structure. The paper is based on data from a longitudinal study of two siblings from one year up to five years of age. The two subjects were purposefully sampled and the data collected by using parental diary, an audio-recorder and a word list. Couched within the Optimality Theory (OT; Prince & Smolensky, 2004), the data was analyzed in conventional OT tableaux. The optimal output was assessed through comparative evaluation of harmony based on Kiswahili specific constraint hierarchy. The findings indicate that transitional grammars exhibit different phonological processes at different stages as the child re-ranks the constraints to approximate to the adult norm. Children initially rank markedness constraints above the faithfulness constraints which results in alternations and therefore, phonological processes that ease the task of acquisition. In this process, the output is typically the unmarked forms that are simpler in structure, easier to produce and perceive and thus, easier to acquire. These processes reduce and ultimately disappear as the child demotes the markedness constraints below the faithfulness constraints attaining adult-like phonologies.

Keywords: Kiswahili, phonological processes, constraints, markedness, optimality, harmony

DOI: 10.7176/JLLL/85-03

Publication date: January 31^st 2022