The influence of word stress on segmental and cluster match: a Bulgarian three-year-old with protracted phonological development

The current paper analyses speech data of a monolingual Bulgarian girl (“Etty”, aged 3;11) with protracted phonological development (PPD). Etty's profile demonstrates the strong effects of prohibitive word structure constraints on segmental and whole-word accuracy. Single-word utterances were audio-recorded by a native speaker and transcribed phonetically by three transcribers. Data were analysed within a constraints-based nonlinear phonological framework (Bernhardt & Stemberger, Introduction to this issue). Even though the child's segmental system met age-level expectations in stressed syllables, strong constraints against initial unstressed syllables and consonant sequences reduced her overall accuracy and intelligibility. The data highlight the importance of examining all aspects of the phonological hierarchy, and further define the scope of PPD for Bulgarian.