Two 5-year-olds' production of the word "elephant" (IMAGE)

Acoustical Society of America

Two 5-year-olds' production of the word "elephant"

Caption

(left) 5-year-old AAE girl’s production of “elephant.” When the /t/ sound in /nt/ is produced the AAE speaker produces less aspiration noise. The /t/ sound exists for a shorter period in time relative to the WAE /t/ production. The duration of the word is 740 milliseconds (.74 seconds). (right) 5-year-old WAE girl’s production of “elephant.” When the /t/ sound in /nt/ is produced the WAE speaker produces a lot of aspiration noise. The /t/ sound exists for a longer period in time relative to the AAE /t/ production. The duration of the entire word is 973 milliseconds (.97) seconds. Both girls have intelligible productions of the word “elephant.”

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Holt

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