• DOI:10.1080/026992000750048125
• Corpus ID: 14574548

Acoustic characteristics of trill productions by groups of Spanish children

@article{Mendoza2000AcousticCO,
  title={Acoustic characteristics of trill productions by groups of Spanish children},
  author={Gloria Carballo, Elvira Mendoza},
  journal={Clinical Linguistics \& Phonetics},
  year={2000},
  volume={14},
  pages={587 - 601}
}

• Gloria Carballo, Elvira Mendoza
• Published 1 January 2000
• Physics
• Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics

Contrary to the English /r/, which has been extensively analysed, there is very little information on the trilled consonants in Spanish. These sounds are in general difficult to produce for young Spanish children and occur later (than other consonant sounds) in normal development. This paper describes acoustic measurements made on the trill productions in Spanish children with varying degrees of speech intelligibility. The spectral (frequency, amplitude, C-V ratio) and temporal characteristics (duration of the trill, number of open and closed periods?apertures and occlusions-and duration of these periods) were studied in 45 children (Granada, Spain) between 3.0 and 9.6 years old, divided into 5 groups. The results reveal differences in spectral and temporal acoustic correlates of trill /r/ among the five speaker groups (e.g., the duration of the first aperture period was longer for the articulatory disordered group than for the normal control group). They seem to indicate, in particular, that children who have trouble learning to make the trill sound do little more than tap the alveolar ridge. Moreover, these children seem to use more of their tongues to make these gestures; also, they do not make many trills or make them very quickly.