Previous research suggests that infant perception of phonetic contrasts undergoes a reorganisation during the first year of life with universal sound discrimination from birth that adapts to the native phoneme contrasts around 12 months of age. This paper focuses on two closely related languages that crucially differ in the realisation of stop contrasts: (Standard High) German and Swiss German. The first employs a VOT contrast for tense/lax stops, the latter uses a length contrast to distinguish singletons and geminates.

In a habituation paradigm, German and Swiss infants aged 7, 11 and 15 months were tested on their ability to discriminate (a) VOT contrasts and (b) closure duration contrasts for labial stops. Results show that German infants discriminated the VOT contrast at all ages. Swiss German infants discriminated the VOT contrast at 11 months only. At 7 months, neither German nor Swiss German children discriminated the closure duration contrast, whereas both groups were able to perceive the contrast at 11 and 15 months of age. Our findings contribute to clarifying the so far inconsistent picture of infant perception of length contrasts. We discuss the findings critically with regard to the different dimensions of VOT and closure duration.

先前的研究表明，婴儿对语音对比的感知在生命的第一年经历了重组，从出生开始就普遍存在声音辨别力，可适应大约12个月大的本地音素对比。本文着重介绍两种在停止对比度实现上极为重要的紧密相关的语言：（标准高）德语和瑞士德语。前者使用VOT对比来表示时态/松弛停止，后者使用长度对比来区分单例和双峰。

在一种习惯范式中，对7、11和15个月大的德国和瑞士婴儿进行了辨别（a）VOT对比和（b）阴唇关闭的持续时间对比的能力测试。结果表明，德国婴儿在所有年龄段都区分了VOT对比。瑞士德国婴儿仅在11个月时就区分了VOT对比。在7个月大时，德国和瑞士的德国孩子都没有区别封闭时间对比，而两组在11和15个月大时都能察觉到对比。我们的发现有助于澄清迄今为止​​婴儿对长度对比的看法不一致的情况。我们对VOT的不同维度和关闭时间进行了严格的讨论。