Acquisition of complex coda and sonority among selected bilingual Nigerian children

Abstract

This study examined the role of sonority in the acquisition of complex coda by Yoruba-English bilingual children with a view to determining the way children rank constraints to arrive at their outputs. The study adopted Optimality Theory as the theoretical framework. A wordlist of about 100 words, complemented by relevant pictures, was used to collect the data for analysis. Spontaneous speeches were also collected. Ten Yoruba-English bilingual children made up the population. The data got were phonologically and acoustically analyzed. The children’s grammar showed a preference for less sonorous consonants over highly sonorous consonants in coda clusters through deletion and substitution of segments. They also showed a preference for single consonants that are not highly sonorous at the coda. They violated *COMPLEX-CODA and sometimes NOCODA. The grammar of the Yoruba-English bilingual child does not allow for the formation of coda clusters. This may be as a result of the influence of the indigenous language.