Syllable Reduction in Child Speech

The present study deals with syllable reduction in the speech of (40) Mosuli children aged between (2) and (4) years. The study has tackled reduction on both levels: word and sentence. It tries to study weak syllable deletion in different word positions, i.e. Initially, medially and finally and to see whether the occurrence of syllable deletion is affected by the number of the syllables in a word, i.e. is the deletion higher in disyllabic words, tri-syllabic or poly syllabic words? A number of pictures (48 pictures) was presented for the children. Their speech has been recorded, analyzed and dealt with in terms of percentages. It is found that the children omitted unstressed syllables to simplify their speech. The occurrence of weak syllable deletion WSP is higher in poly syllabic words than in disyllabic and tri-syllabic. Moreover, the deletion of unstressed syllables was higher in initial position than in medial and final positions.