The acquisition of r in Iraqi Arabic

Abstract EN

There is very little research in the field of Arabic language acquisition This study explores the development in the acquisition of the trill /r/ in Iraqi Arabic (IA).

It attempts to answer four main questions; (1) What percentage in the total sample produced /r/ correctly? (2) Is this the age of customary, acquisition, or mastery for IA children? (3) Does the production accuracy of /r/ vary by position in the syllable and child sex? (4) How is the acquisition of /r/ developed within this age group? Samples were collected from 20 normally developing children between the ages of 1:8 and 3:7.

The results showed noticeable sex differences in the acquisition of /r/.

Besides, /r/ was produced more accurately in syllable-initial than syllable-final position.

Statistics reflected a cross-dialectal variation among Arabic dialects, where Iraqi children acquired /r/ at different age it is acquired in other Arabic dialects, such as Jordanian Arabic.

However, results of this paper go in support of previously suggested universal sound acquisition as /r/ was acquired in IA at about the same age it is acquired in English.

The acquisition of /r/ was accompanied by gliding and deletion.