Consonant‐vowel place linkages in the babbling of 6‐, 9‐ and 12‐month‐old learners of French, English, and Mandarin

The place of articulation of consonants and vowels in CV syllables in babbling has been claimed to be linked, such that front vowels predominantly occur with labial consonants, mid‐vowels with coronals, and back vowels with velars[P. F. MacNeilage, Behav. Brain Sci. 21, 499–546 (1998)]. Support for this claim has come from a variety of languages, but a further implication has not been tested: If children depend on this frame/content approach less as they develop, there should be a trend away from it as language mastery increases. Here, we examined the babbling of six English‐learning, five French‐learning, and five Mandarin‐learning infants, sampled at 6, 9, and 12 months of age. There was only moderate support for the frame/content account in the overall ratios, with velars occurring noticeably less often than predicted with back vowels. Further, there was no pattern toward a decrease in evidence for frame/content organization across these 6 months. Together with other theoretical considerations, these r...