Even Toddlers Can Identify Several Dialects Of a Language

Children as young as 19 months understand different dialects, a skill, which researchers call 'phonological constancy.

Even at the tender age of 19 months, children can understand different dialects of a language. Researchers term this skill 'phonological constancy'.

Everyday, we come across different accents. Even when a speaker of another English dialect pronounces words differently than we do, we are typically able to recognize their words.

One-millionth Word to be Added to English Language Next Month
Linguistic experts have revealed that the one-millionth word will be added to the English language next month.

Now, psychologist Catherine Best from MARCS Laboratories, University of Western Sydney, along with colleagues from Haskins Laboratories and Wesleyan University, has shed light on the early development of this cross-dialect skill.

In the study, 15- and 19-month-old American toddlers looked at a coloured checkerboard on a monitor in order to hear sets of familiar words or unfamiliar words.

They completed two tests, one with their own American dialect, and the other with a Jamaican English dialect.

Language Lover Working Hard to Preserve Chinglish
Oliver Radtke says he first discovered the odd and wonderful world of Chinglish in 2000 in a Shanghai cab, where he saw a curious sign reading: Don't forget to carry your thing.

The results suggested that phonological constancy is already evident by 19 months of age, but is not yet present at 15 months.

Both ages listened longer to familiar words than to unfamiliar words in the American dialect, indicating they recognize and prefer words they know.

Language Skills Program For Deaf And Hard of Hearing Children Gains Success
Children enrolled before they are six months old in a home-based program that teaches language skills to the deaf or hard of hearing not only achieve language skills but also maintain them over time.

The 15-month-olds failed to show this preference for the Jamaican dialect, suggesting poor recognition of Jamaican-accented words.

However, the 19-month-olds showed the same familiar-word preference in the Jamaican accent as in the American accent, indicating cross-dialect phonological constancy for words.

Scientists Create Lip-Reading Computers That can Interpret Different Languages
Scientists at the University of East Anglia (UEA) have created lip-reading computers that can distinguish between different languages.

The researchers said that phonological constancy, along with the complementary ability to differentiate words from similar-sounding words or non-words, "together serve as a solid foundation on which children rapidly build a vocabulary, and later extrapolate from spoken language to the world of reading."

The study has been described in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

Source-ANI
TAN