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УДК 376
ГРУППЫ СОГЛАСНЫХ ЗВУКОВ КАК ЛОГОПЕДИЧЕСКАЯ ПРОБЛЕМА
© 2020 С. Милевский1, К. Качоровска-Брей2, М. Михалик3
1 профессор, директор Института логопедии e-mail: stanislaw. milewski @ ug. edu.pl 2профессор, заместитель директора Института логопедии e-mail: katarzyna. bray @ ug. edu.pl
Гданьскийуниверситет (Польша)
3профессор e-mail: mmichalik@pwsz-ns.edu.pl
Педагогический институт Государственного университета прикладных наук
в Новом Сонче (Польша)
Характерной особенностью фонотактической системы польского и русского языков являются группы согласных звуков. Количество таких комбинаций и их частота в польском языке выше, чем в других славянских языках. Дети, овладевающие языком, сталкиваются с проблемами в овладении правильным произношением согласных кластеров. Люди с различными типами нарушений речи и произношения имеют особые проблемы с ними. В этой статье представлены основные вопросы, связанные с группами согласных звуков с точки зрения логопедической и онтолингвистики.
Ключевые слова: группы согласных звуков, слог, слоговая структура слов, овладение языком, онтолингвистика.
CONSONANT GROUPS AS AN ISSUE IN SPEECH THERAPY
Prof. Stanistaw Milewski
University of Gdansk, director of the Institute of Speech Therapy e-mail: stanislaw. milewski @ ug. edu.pl
Prof. Katarzyna Kaczorowska-Bray
University of Gdansk, vice-director of the Institute of Speech Therapy e-mail: katarzyna. bray @ ug. edu.pl
Prof. Mirostaw Michalik
Pedagogical Institute of State University of Applied Sciences in Nowy Sqcz e-mail: mmichalik@pwsz-ns.edu.pl
Poland
A characteristic feature of the phono-tactic system of the Polish and Russian languages are consonant groups. The number of such combinations and their frequency in Polish is higher than in other Slavic languages. Children acquiring the language have a problem in mastering the proper pronunciation of consonant clusters. People with various types of speech and pronunciation impairments have particular problems in their realisation. This article presents basic issues related to consonant groups from the perspective of speech therapy and onto-linguistics.
Keywords: consonant groups, syllable, syllabic structure of words, language acquisition, onto-linguistics.
In speech therapy of children with dyslalia, much attention is devoted to correcting particular incorrectly pronounced speech sounds, with insufficient appreciation of work on word structure, i.e. its syllabic, phonetic-phonological structure, quality and mutual relations of syllables and speech sounds in a given word. In many cases, the ability to pronounce speech sounds in isolation, in syllables and simple words is not a guarantee of their use in longer utterances. Since no-one communicates using individual speech sounds, what should interest us above all are the words [Soltys-Chmielowicz, 2008]. However, mastery of phoneme sequences possible in a given language creates specific difficulties and is extended over time in mastering the mother language.
The most important element of word structure is without doubt the syllable, which may constitute a particular word (mono-syllabic word); it is the carrier of prosodic characteristics of speech, "opening the way towards knowing the word" [Krakowiak, 2004]. The earliest appearing type of syllable in ontogenesis is the syllable of CV structure, where C signifies any consonant (Latin consonans), and V any vowel (vocalis). This type of syllable is defined in literature as a nuclear/ canonical/ universal syllable [Jakobson, Halle, 1964; Szpyra-Kozlowska, 2002].
A characteristic feature of the structure of particular syllable types is the presence of consonant clusters (Russian сочетания согласных, кластеры) in them, i.e. direct combinations of a few consonants in speech. These structures are considered to be among the characteristic phonetic features of the Polish language, in which the number of such clusters, their length and frequency are higher than in other Slavic languages [Dukiewicz, Sawicka, 1995]. A child's acquisition of the ability to realise consonant groups is considered to be one of the most interesting developmental issues in the scope of the phonological system. In spite of the matter's importance, there is only a modest number of works devoted to consonant groups analysed from the perspective of onto-linguistics or speech therapy. There is a lack of studies presenting the acquisition of consonant clusters in an ontogenetic perspective, conducted among a greater population of children in particular age ranges. Among diagnostic tools, there is also no questionnaire/ test to study the realisation of consonant groups1.
According to P. Lobacz (2005), the assimilation of consonant groups, i.e. direct combinations of a few consonants within words or where they connect, by children is a central issue in the area of their acquisition of the phono-tactic system2.
For speech therapists, a significant issue is objective assessment of the realisation of consonant groups. It is clear that in order to build appropriate tools for testing the realisation of consonant groups, it is necessary to have a list of such combinations, their frequency and to have appropriate knowledge on the subject of their structure.
Appropriate research in this area has been conducted by S. Milewski (2017, 2005), who analysed the occurrence of consonant groups in the vocabulary of Polish children at preschool age. The entire material he analysed amounted to 409,663 phonemes in total. Analysis
1 That there has been relatively little research devoted to this matter in our country may be evident in the fact that the eminent scholar of phonetics and child phonology - A. Soltys-Chmielowicz - in her book published in 1998 "The pronunciation of pre-school children" discussing the matter of consonant groups, claimed that the most thorough analysis of consonant groups, based on broad material, was conducted by A. N. Gwozdiew in the Russian language work "Усвоение ребёнком звуковой стороны русского языка" published in 1948 (sic!). For studies on the assimilation of consonant groups by children acquiring Russian as their mother language, it is certainly a fundamental publication. However, it is difficult to transfer the results of observations presented by Gwozdiew directly into the Polish context.
2 Phono-tactics (Greedk phoni 'sound', taktikos 'referring to ordering') is concerned with the possible phoneme sequences in a given language, determines the rules of combinability of these units and studies possibilities and restrictions in the creation of their groups.
Милевский С., Качоровска - Брей К., Михалик М. Группы согласных звуков как логопедическая проблема
Stanislaw Milewski, Katarzyna Kaczorowska-Bray, Miroslaw Michalik
Consonant groups as an issue in speech therapy
of data allowed one to determine that, similarly as with other variances of the Polish language, in the speech of pre-schoolers all of the extracted consonant groups occur in the initial (onset), middle and final (coda) part of words (see table 1.).
Table 1
Number of different consonant groups, types of combination3 and their frequency
regarding position in the word in children's speech
Position of group in word Number of different Number of combination Frequency of occurrence in
groups types speech
Initial
number 249 46 15122
% 27.85 29.11 34.76
Middle
number 581 93 25650
% 64.99 58.86 58.97
Final
number 64 19 2728
% 7.16 12.03 6.27
Source: Milewski, 2005, p. 17.
Most frequently occurring in children's speech are middle consonant groups (581), which make up 64.99% of all the extracted consonant combinations. The position in which the least consonant clusters appear (64) is the final part of the word. In pre-schoolers' speech, 7.16% of all distinguished consonant combinations appeared in this position. In the initial part of words in the speech of pre-school children, 249 consonant groups were extracted (27.85% of all analysed clusters).
Table 2
Number of different consonant groups, types of combination and their frequency in children's speech regarding the number of consonants in the group_
Type of group Number of different Number of combination Frequency of occurrence in
groups types speech
CC
number 555 65 40065
% 62.08 41.14 92.10
CCC
number 302 69 3286
% 33.78 43.67 7.55
CCCC
number 36 23 147
% 4.03% 14.56% 0.34
CCCCC
number 1 1 2
% 0.11 0.63 0.01
Total:
number 894 158 43500
% 100.0 100.0 100.0
Source: Milewski, 2005, p. 19.
3 In determining the type of cluster, consideration was made of the mode of articulation of the consonants forming the consonant group: sonorant, voiced/unvoiced fricative, affricate and plosive consonants.
Taking under consideration the number of elements forming the consonant group, structures built of two consonants turned out to be the most numerous. These constitute 62.08% of the total number of clusters extracted from the speech of pre-school children, while their frequency was 92.10% of the total appearance of consonant groups. The frequency of occurrence of three-consonant groups among other combinations of this type amounted to 7.55%. The frequency of groups with more elements (4- and 5-consonant) in children's speech was merely 0.35% of the sum of occurrences of all consonant clusters (see table 2.).
On the basis of detailed analysis of the collected material, it can be stated that most consonant groups are too difficult to pronounce by a small child. In their basic vocabulary, this type of combination hardly ever appear. Consonant groups occurring in the child's speech are above all simplified, which is evident with the greatest regularity in comparison with other aspects of children's phonetics, and occurs to various extent in children at all stages of linguistic development [Kaczmarek, 1988; Zar^bina, 1965; Gwozdiew, 2007; Solomatina, 2005; Cejtlin, 2000; Jelisiejewa, 2008]. Simplification of consonant groups usually leads to simplification of the syllable structure. Many researchers consider that the mechanisms of reducing consonant groups are similar for children acquiring various languages. Perhaps the reduction of consonant groups is also influenced by the consonantal density of a given language. P. Lobacz (2005) considers that the reduction of consonant groups is strongly dependent on the type of language. From a typological perspective, the more a given language is determined to be consonantal, the earlier consonant clusters appear in children's speech.
A child's ability to pronounce consonant groups is influenced by the following factors: a/ the quality of speech sounds forming the group (above all the mode of articulation of consonants); b/ the position of the consonant group in a word (middle clusters usually appear earliest, later the initial and latest the final ones); c/ the order of consonants within the consonant group; d/ the number of consonants making up the group [Milewski, 2005; Gwozdiew, 2007; Jelisiejewa, 2008].
In comparison with initial and middle groups, final consonant groups appear the most rarely. In many cases, they occur in words that do not belong to the colloquial level of lexis and appear most often (especially multi-phoneme groups) in inflectional forms of nouns. Groups occurring in this word position are particularly prone to various types of distortion, reduction, etc., as the final position is weaker in Polish articulation than the other positions.
Children's problems with pronouncing consonant groups find their reflection in writing. Mistakes in writing words that include consonant combinations in their structure are made especially often by pupils at the level of early education.
It is certain that speech therapists' knowledge in the area of phonetics and phonology will be fuller if they have an appropriate level of knowledge in the area of phono-tactics, whose sphere of interest includes consonant groups, their frequency and realisation.
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