When consonants resemble vowels: investigating protracted phonological development in Akan

This paper addresses the phonology of an Akan-speaking child aged 5;3 with Protracted Phonological Development. His phonological system had many strengths, with most consonants accurate at least some of the time and with many long words, but with weaknesses that lead to a very low Whole Word Match. In addition to some difficulty with consonant and vowel sequences (leading to assimilation), there are issues relative to complex consonants that contain vowel features (consonants with secondary articulations, the labiopalatal glide, and /r/) and with syllabic consonants (nasals and /r/) that lead to deletion, epenthesis, and some extensive changes in output. One complex place of articulation (alveolopalatal) is well-established and frequently overgeneralized in the output. We present a non-linear analysis of his speech production and a plan for intervention targeting his difficulties.