The Articulatory Properties of Children's Acquisition of Estonian Palatalization

When children learn to speak, they start to develop control over their vocal tract, and they learn the set of motions to reliably produce sounds that are native to their language. With time, the gestures get more complex, and the speech gets faster. Children need to learn how to control their tongue so that they can communicate their linguistic goals. There is currently very little knowledge about the process by which children refine the coordination of multiple parts of the tongue and how this develops as they get older. Also, previous work has only focused on a small number of large West-European languages. Here, we use ultrasound tongue imaging to investigate how children learn consonants requiring multiple tongue movements in Estonian to chart development at different ages. In addition to academic papers, our project will provide research-informed normative data for speech therapists and educators working in Estonia about typical patterns of child speech development.