This study examines the effects of input quality on early phonological acquisition by investigating whether interadult variation in specific phonetic properties in the input is reflected in the production of their children. We analysed the English coda stop release patterns in the spontaneous speech of fourteen mothers and compared them with the spontaneous production of their preschool children. The analysis revealed a very strong positive input–production relationship; mothers who released coda stops to a lesser degree also had children who tended to not release their stops, and the same was true for mothers who released their stops to a higher degree. The findings suggest that young children are sensitive to acoustic properties that are subphonemic, and these properties are also reflected in their production, showing the importance of considering input quality when investigating child production.

本研究通过调查输入中特定语音特性的成人间变异是否反映在孩子的生产中，来检验输入质量对早期语音习得的影响。我们分析了 14 位母亲自发言语中的英语尾声停顿释放模式，并将其与学龄前儿童的自发表达进行比较。分析表明，投入与生产之间存在非常强的正相关关系；释放尾声停顿程度较低的母亲，其孩子也倾向于不释放停顿声音，对于释放程度较高的母亲来说，情况也是如此。研究结果表明，幼儿对亚音位的声学特性很敏感，这些特性也反映在他们的生产中，这表明在调查儿童生产时考虑输入质量的重要性。