A voice onset time analysis of apical stop production in 3-year-olds

Kewley-Port & Preston (1974) reported that when words beginning with /d/ and /t/ were first observed (about 2; 0 for their subject E 4 ), the characteristics of their voice onset time (VOT) distributions remained constant until at least 4; 6. The present investigation reports data for VOT for /d/ and /t/, from six children at average age 3; 0. Values for /d/ clearly achieve the short voicing lag category of adults, reported by Lisker & Abramson (1964, 1970, 1971). Values for /t/, however, are much more widely dispersed than adult values for /t/, although falling within the category long voicing lag .