While voicing contrasts in word-onset position are acquired relatively early, much less is known about how and when they are acquired in word-coda position, where accurate production of these contrasts is also critical for distinguishing words (e.g., dog vs. dock). This study examined how the acoustic cues to coda voicing contrasts are realized in the speech of 4-year-old Australian English-speaking children. The results showed that children used similar acoustic cues to those of adults, including longer vowel duration and more frequent voice bar for voiced stops, and longer closure and burst durations for voiceless stops along with more frequent irregular pitch periods. This suggests that 4-year-olds have acquired productive use of the acoustic cues to coda voicing contrasts, though implementations are not yet fully adult-like. The findings have implications for understanding the development of phonological contrasts in populations for whom these may be challenging, such as children with hearing loss.

中文翻译：

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尾声的声学提示停止了在澳大利亚讲英语的儿童中表达对比

虽然在词首位置的发音对比是相对较早获得的，但对于如何以及何时在词尾位置获得这些对比知之甚少，其中准确产生这些对比对于区分单词也很关键（例如，做G对比做ck）。这项研究检查了如何在 4 岁的澳大利亚英语儿童的演讲中实现尾声发音对比的声学线索。结果表明，儿童使用与成人相似的声学提示，包括更长的元音持续时间和更频繁的浊音塞音，以及更长的清音塞音的闭合和爆发持续时间以及更频繁的不规则音高周期。这表明 4 岁的孩子已经获得了对声学线索的有效使用，以进行尾声的对比，尽管实施还没有完全像成人一样。这些发现对于理解这些可能具有挑战性的人群中语音对比的发展具有重要意义，例如听力损失的儿童。