A Study on Occurrence of Urdu Consonants in The Speech of Preschoolers

Abstract

The frequency of occurrence data of the consonants of a language form the basis for the design of speech perception tests, articulation assessments and auditory training hierarchies, but no frequency of occurrence data is available for Urdu from the spontaneous speech of preschool aged children. Frequency of occurrence of Urdu consonants in the natural speech of children (3-6 years) was determined in the present study according to the manner of articulation, word position and age group. A descriptive design was used. The children (78) were selected from 2 schools in Rawalpindi and Islamabad by using convenient sampling and 8 speech samples of total 247 minutes were recorded from the children during unstructured play and interaction activity with the help of audio recorder. Samples were transcribed in Urdu language, consonants were extracted against Urdu Phonetic Inventory and tallies were made of frequencies for initial, middle and final position of the word for each age group (3.1–4, 4.1–5, and 5.1–6 years). The number of words totaled 6,380 and the number of consonant occurrences was 11,982. A total of 37 consonants were obtained, 36 at the beginning, 33 at the middle and 30 at the end. The most frequent consonants across the whole corpus were /ɦ/ (1,526; 12.7%), /r/ (1,125; 9.4%) and /n/ (831; 6.9%). Position-wise, /ɦ/ dominated the initial position (791), /t/ the middle position (495) and /r/ the final position (501). The twenty highest-frequency consonants were /ɦ, r, n, k, t, m, s, l, b, p, j, ɡ, t͡ʃ, d, ɽ, ʈ, d͡ʒ, kʰ, z, t͡ʃʰ/. The results are presented in a ranked list of targets for the auditory learning of the hearing impaired, which teachers of the hearing impaired, speech-language pathologists and audiologists could use to order the auditory learning priorities for hearing impaired students and develop phonetically balanced test items in Urdu language.

Key words:

 Urdu consonants, hearing impairment, preschoolers, frequency of occurrence, phonological development, auditory training, Urdu Phonetic Inventory