query on consonant cluster reduction

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Mon Jan 23 16:33:20 UTC 2006


For a student working on her senior essay, I'm wondering if anyone on
the list can suggest research looking at consonant cluster
simplification among AAVE and non-AAVE children.  In particular, she
was taking Walt Wolfram's work in the late 1960s as a starting point
and re-examining it using data from the CHILDES database focusing on
4.5 to 5-year-olds.  Both final and initial clusters are relevant,
but Walt set aside past tense clusters because of the complications
of adding morphological to more strictly phonological concerns, so
it's more the latter she'll be considering (e.g. reduction in "past"
but not in "passed").  Are there any papers or monographs on this
issue that anyone can recommend?  Thanks.

Larry

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list