Does phonological distance impact quality of phonological representations? Evidence from Arabic diglossia

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Abstract

The study tested the impact of the phonological distance between Spoken Arabic (SpA) and Standard Arabic (StA) on quality of phonological representations among kindergarten, first-, second-, and sixth-grade Arabic-speaking children (N = 120). A pronunciation accuracy judgment task targeted three types of StA words that varied in extent of phonological distance from their form in SpA: (a) identical words, with an identical lexical-phonological form in StA and SpA; (b) cognate words, with partially overlapping phonological forms; items in this category varied in degree of phonological distance too; and (c) unique words with entirely different lexical-phonological forms. Multilevel Regression analysis showed that phonological distance had a significant impact on quality of phonological representations across all grades. Growth in quality of phonological representations was mainly noted between the three younger groups and the sixth-graders. Implications for the impact of phonological distance on phonological representations and on language and literacy development are discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1377-1399
Number of pages23
JournalJournal of Child Language
Volume45
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Nov 2018

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Cambridge University Press.

Keywords

  • Arabic
  • diglossia
  • literacy
  • phonological distance
  • phonological representations

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