Preface

Summary

Long ago I published a book (Smith, N. V., The Acquisition of Phonology: A Case Study, Cambridge University Press, 1973), documenting the linguistic development of my elder son Amahl (A). More recently I have been documenting the linguistic development of his elder son Zachary (Z), and have observed interesting similarities and differences between the two cases. More importantly, the advantages of hindsight in combination with advances in the field have enabled me to revise or reinterpret some of my earlier conclusions. The results of this “Acquisition of phonology from A to Z” follow.

I should start by admitting that there are several possible limitations of the study. Interacting with a grandchild is not the same as living with one's own offspring, and my contact with Z was relatively sporadic compared to my continuous contact with A. However, in the three years or so during which I collected data, I had over 150 sessions with him and rapport was excellent, so I don't think I have missed much of significance in the areas I concentrated on. This leads directly to the second limitation: the focus of the study is largely restricted to segmental phonology, with no systematic discussion of prosody. This is partly a reflection of my competence, partly a function of time and equipment.