The Acquisition of Branching Onsets in Simultaneous French–Portuguese Bilingual Children: The Effect of Age, Language, Cluster Type, and Dominance

The literature on bilingual language development often reports cases of cross-linguistic interaction of the two languages being acquired. In this paper, we investigate possible cross-linguistic interaction outputs in the development of branching onsets in the bilingual acquisition of French and Port...

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Main Authors: Letícia Almeida, Margarida Possidónio, Mariana Castro
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2024-12-01
Series:Languages
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/9/12/384
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author Letícia Almeida
Margarida Possidónio
Mariana Castro
author_facet Letícia Almeida
Margarida Possidónio
Mariana Castro
author_sort Letícia Almeida
collection DOAJ
description The literature on bilingual language development often reports cases of cross-linguistic interaction of the two languages being acquired. In this paper, we investigate possible cross-linguistic interaction outputs in the development of branching onsets in the bilingual acquisition of French and Portuguese. Thirty French–Portuguese bilingual children, aged between 3;6 and 6;1, participated in our study. Their elicited productions were collected using two picture naming tasks containing 29 clusters in French and 57 clusters in Portuguese. Almost all the children acquire branching onsets earlier in French than in Portuguese, independently of the quality of cluster type (Consonant + Rhotic (Cr) clusters vs. Consonant + Lateral (Cl) clusters). Epenthesis is more present in Portuguese than in French. Shared structures in both languages are not acquired at the same time. These results show that bilingual children follow separate patterns of development, close to the ones reported for monolinguals, during the acquisition of their two languages. Moreover, the bilingual children show higher rates of development of clusters in Portuguese than the ones reported for monolinguals, suggesting an accelerated acquisition of clusters in Portuguese due to a positive influence of French.
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spelling doaj-art-ebba62effa994f919e92f26a482b3ff22025-08-20T02:57:02ZengMDPI AGLanguages2226-471X2024-12-0191238410.3390/languages9120384The Acquisition of Branching Onsets in Simultaneous French–Portuguese Bilingual Children: The Effect of Age, Language, Cluster Type, and DominanceLetícia Almeida0Margarida Possidónio1Mariana Castro2School of Arts and Humanities, University of Lisbon, 1600-214 Lisbon, PortugalSchool of Arts and Humanities, University of Lisbon, 1600-214 Lisbon, PortugalSchool of Arts and Humanities, University of Lisbon, 1600-214 Lisbon, PortugalThe literature on bilingual language development often reports cases of cross-linguistic interaction of the two languages being acquired. In this paper, we investigate possible cross-linguistic interaction outputs in the development of branching onsets in the bilingual acquisition of French and Portuguese. Thirty French–Portuguese bilingual children, aged between 3;6 and 6;1, participated in our study. Their elicited productions were collected using two picture naming tasks containing 29 clusters in French and 57 clusters in Portuguese. Almost all the children acquire branching onsets earlier in French than in Portuguese, independently of the quality of cluster type (Consonant + Rhotic (Cr) clusters vs. Consonant + Lateral (Cl) clusters). Epenthesis is more present in Portuguese than in French. Shared structures in both languages are not acquired at the same time. These results show that bilingual children follow separate patterns of development, close to the ones reported for monolinguals, during the acquisition of their two languages. Moreover, the bilingual children show higher rates of development of clusters in Portuguese than the ones reported for monolinguals, suggesting an accelerated acquisition of clusters in Portuguese due to a positive influence of French.https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/9/12/384phonological acquisitionchild bilingualismclusterscross-linguistic influence
spellingShingle Letícia Almeida
Margarida Possidónio
Mariana Castro
The Acquisition of Branching Onsets in Simultaneous French–Portuguese Bilingual Children: The Effect of Age, Language, Cluster Type, and Dominance
Languages
phonological acquisition
child bilingualism
clusters
cross-linguistic influence
title The Acquisition of Branching Onsets in Simultaneous French–Portuguese Bilingual Children: The Effect of Age, Language, Cluster Type, and Dominance
title_full The Acquisition of Branching Onsets in Simultaneous French–Portuguese Bilingual Children: The Effect of Age, Language, Cluster Type, and Dominance
title_fullStr The Acquisition of Branching Onsets in Simultaneous French–Portuguese Bilingual Children: The Effect of Age, Language, Cluster Type, and Dominance
title_full_unstemmed The Acquisition of Branching Onsets in Simultaneous French–Portuguese Bilingual Children: The Effect of Age, Language, Cluster Type, and Dominance
title_short The Acquisition of Branching Onsets in Simultaneous French–Portuguese Bilingual Children: The Effect of Age, Language, Cluster Type, and Dominance
title_sort acquisition of branching onsets in simultaneous french portuguese bilingual children the effect of age language cluster type and dominance
topic phonological acquisition
child bilingualism
clusters
cross-linguistic influence
url https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/9/12/384
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