Phonological templates in French
Résumé
Continuity between babbling and early word forms, which is now widely accepted, lays the foundation for later word patterns or templates that are individual by child yet with strong similarities across different ambient languages. Yet cross-linguistic studies reveal typological differences. English, German and Estonian children often settle on CVC templates, for example, while French children do not - despite the occurrence in French input of many high frequency CVC words such as coq, dame, robe, soupe, vache. We assume that templatic patterns are influenced by French rhythm and its CV.CV syllabification. Our goal is to establish the extent to which typological - and particularly rhythmic - constraints influence French templatic patterns. Based on 12 monthly recordings from each of six monolingual French children (from a mean age of 19 months), we focus on the reorganizational processes that lead from individual templates to the emergence of more adult- like structures and stable segmental, syllabic and prosodic representations. We find a strong preference for open-syllable structures in the early word templates, with both codas and clusters reserved for a later stage. The earliest templates are generally monosyllabic CV, derived from the final (accented) syllable of the target; this then develops into either a reduplicated disyllable or a VCV pattern, in which the onset vowel may derive from the determiner that is virtually always present in French input. Despite individual differences, these data reflect strong central tendencies not seen in Germanic languages.