Phonological development: acquisition of hausa secondary consonants by the hausa children / Sani Dauda Ibrahim

Phonological development refers to the stages that children pass before they can correctly use
and understand the sound system of their language. Inspired by Stampe’s (1969) Natural
Phonology Theory, this paper examines the acquisition of Hausa secondary consonants
pronunciation by the Hausa children. The paper seeks to achieve the following objectives (a) to
identify the phonological processes that are operating in the production of the Hausa secondary
consonants by the Hausa 2-5 years children (b) to discover the units that are more affected if
certain changes occur in the production of the Hausa secondary consonants (c) to explain
whether a parental behavior influence the children’s production of the Hausa secondary
consonants. Four children aged between 2-5 years were purposely selected. The data were
collected using a Pictorial Stimulus-Driven Elicitation. The study found that reduction,
simplification, and substitution phonological processes operate in some of the children’s speech
production. It also revealed that regardless of the glottal stop, the second unit of the secondary
consonants is more affected and that parental behavior affects children’s speech production. The
implication of this result is that it can be used by speech pathology to draw a conclusion about
the Hausa children’s phonological development.